Labor says it will accept a lower renewable energy target, backing a compromise floated by the Clean Energy Council, in an effort to end the political stalemate which has sparked an investment drought in the sector.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said on Wednesday Labor would accept an RET of 33,500 gigawatt hours by 2020 – the benchmark set recently by the renewables sector – “to stop the loss of further jobs and investment”.
“Labor is acting on the advice of the renewable energy industry, the CEC and the experts in reaching this decision,” Shorten said in a statement. “Every day this matter drags on, more jobs are lost and every day the uncertainty continues, projects are shelved and future jobs are lost.”
The renewables sector has in recent weeks urged the Coalition and Labor to come to terms on the RET to restore certainty for the industry. Business would prefer the RET be settled on a bipartisan basis rather than the government running the gauntlet of the Senate cross bench.
An RET of 33,500 gigawatt hours of annual renewable energy production would represent a significant reduction on the existing legislated target of 41,000 GWh.
But the industry minister, Ian Macfarlane, rebuffed the overture from the opposition.
“We can get a deal the day they [Labor] agree to 32,000 gigawatt hours,” Macfarlane told reporters on Wednesday. “In the meantime I’m continuing my negotiations with the Senate crossbench which I’m very confident will conclude in the next two or three weeks.”
Labor said on Wednesday that the new, reduced target it was proposing was a floor and not a ceiling. Shorten said if Labor wins the federal election in 2016, it could increase the RET out to 2020 “on the advice of the sector”.
Kane Thornton, chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, welcomed Labor’s offer on Wednesday, and called on the Abbott government to end the current stalemate.
Thornton said there was a crisis in the Australian renewables industry that required immediate resolution. He urged the Coalition to work with Labor, not seek a deal with crossbench senators. Thornton said a deal with the crossbench would not end the crisis, it would only prolong the uncertainty for the industry.
“We are calling on the government to end this. From our perspective, this only gets resolved when bipartisanship is restored,” Thornton said. “We need the confidence that the policy will survive.”
Continued wrangling over the renewable energy target came as the Abbott government released a new energy white paper which signals a hands-off, “technology neutral” approach to the electricity market.
The new white paper suggests the government will leave it to the market to determine technologies for power generation and fuels. The white paper is a significant departure from previous work at the commonwealth level under Coalition and Labor governments, which focused on the impacts of climate change on the energy market.
Climate groups on Wednesday criticised the government’s energy white paper for ignoring the benefits of renewable energy.
“The government’s threats to cut back the RET have already undermined Australia’s clean energy potential, causing new investment in large projects to drop by 88% in 2014,” Victoria McKenzie-McHarg from the Australian Conservation Foundation said.
“This energy white paper envisages an Australia clinging on to its old, dumb and dirty energy sector rather than driving a switch to modern, smart and clean energy,” the chief executive of the Climate Institute, John Connor, said.
