MEDIA RELEASE
15 December 2009
Renewables trounce nuclear in Newspoll
NATIONAL: A Newspoll survey commissioned by the Clean Energy Council (CEC) has shown
overwhelming public support for the government to focus its support on renewable energy - such
as solar and wind - over nuclear power.
Given a choice between supporting the development of renewable energy sources and nuclear
power, four out of every five people polled favoured the government giving greater priority to the
development of renewables.
CEC chief executive Matthew Warren said the results show Australians want to see the development
of renewable energy ahead of contentious options like nuclear.
“This confirms what we have thought for some time – you need to exhaust every other alternative
before talking about nuclear energy as a climate change solution for Australia.
“The answers in this poll show that some people may express support for nuclear power in principle,
but four out of every five people would prefer to see an effective renewable energy strategy as a
priority.
“We need to see what renewable technologies can achieve over the next decade. Renewables have
enormous potential, but we still have a lot of work to do to find out how much energy they can deliver
and at what cost,” he said.
Respondents were asked two questions. The first was to baseline their support for each energy
source individually and the second to gauge whether they thought the government should give a
greater priority to the support of renewable energy or nuclear power.
Baseline support
There appears to be broad acceptance for developing alternative energy sources:
The baseline results for nuclear power mirrored a Nielson poll from the last couple of months.
93 per cent of those polled favoured the Federal Government supporting the development of
renewable energy.
Just under half (49 per cent) also showed support for the development of nuclear sources
Greater priority for government
There is a clear preference for giving priority to developing alternatives to nuclear energy
On the matter of which approach should receive the greater priority, the vast majority (80
per cent) said that the government should give priority to renewables while only 15 per cent
favoured priority being given to developing nuclear energy sources.
Males, 22 per cent, were significantly more likely than women, 8%, to believe greater priority
should be given to nuclear energy.
Those aged under 50, 86 per cent, were significantly more likely to prefer renewables over
nuclear, than those aged over 50, 71 per cent.
For media enquiries please call Mark Bretherton 0413 556 981 or 03 9929 4111
The Clean Energy Council, the peak body for the clean energy sector. It is working with all Australian
governments to ensure a secure and diversified energy sector, a reduction in energy waste through solar
water heating and insulation and more clean energy sources in our stationary energy mix from solar,
wind, geothermal, hydro, wave, bioenergy and gas.
Suite 201, 18 Kavanagh Street, Southbank 3006, Australia
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info@cleanenergycouncil.org.au
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+61 3 9929 4100
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