Sunday 1 June 2008.
MEDIA ADVISORY: attention news editors, producers
Expert commentator available
The Budget and renewable energy: from bad to
worse
The negative impact of the recent Federal Budget on the renewable energy sector is even
worse than first realised, according to a new analysis by a UNSW academic.
"Renewable energy has been held back and given only crumbs from the coal industry’s
dinner table," says Dr Mark Diesendorf, a senior lecturer in the UNSW Institute of
Environmental Studies.
“The ill-considered limit on paying the solar photovoltaic rebate of $8,000 only to
households earning less than $100,000 has hit the industry very hard, but it's just one of
several serious blows to the renewable energy sector," says Dr Diesendorf.
“Even worse is the government’s inexplicable refusal to allocate anything in 2008-09 from
the much-vaunted Renewable Energy Fund ($500 million over six years). Yet the Clean
Coal Fund ($500 million over eight years) will pay out $35 million in 2008-09. This
suggests a bias against renewable energy compared with coal.
“As well, there's a serious problem with the government's decision to pay only $1 for
every $2 contributed by industry to both of these energy funds. It's straightforward for the
coal industry to raise $1 billion, by placing a small levy on each tonne of coal, and so
claim the full $500 million from the government.
"But it could be an impossible task for the fledgling renewable energy industries to raise
$1 billion.
If so, the Renewable Energy Fund is a feel-good illusion that may never be fully spent.
"Voters may well conclude that the Rudd Government has violated an implicit promise to
them. There's no doubt Australians preferred Labor in the 2007 election partly because
they were dissatisfied with the impoverishment of renewable energy under Howard.
“One interpretation of the bias against renewable energy in the 2008 Budget is that the
big greenhouse gas emitting industries have already gained the same level of influence over
the Rudd Government as they had over the former Howard Government.
"So far, geothermal drilling is the only ‘renewable energy’ source to be allocated specific
funding in the budget for 2008-09, from the separate Energy Innovation Fund. Yet efficient
energy use, solar power and second-generation biofuels all need urgent research funding to
enable Australia to respond to the combined threats of global warming and peak oil with a
broad mix of technologies.”
Contacts
Office: 02 9385 5707; after hours: 02 9801 2976; mobile: 0402 940 892;
email: m.diesendorf@unsw.edu.au.
NEWS 
