RTR4ACYO
IN PHOTO: Wind turbines at the Infigen Energy wind farm can be seen on the hills surrounding Lake George, located on the outskirts of the Australian capital city of Canberra October 15, 2014. Plans by Australia to cut back its renewable energy target would have a "devastating impact" on investment in the country's sustainable power generation industry, a senior opposition lawmaker said. Australia is one of the world's biggest carbon emitting countries per person but has seen declining electricity use in the past five years amid rising power bills and cheaper renewable energy options. Picture taken October 15, 2014. REUTERS/David Gray

As the Labor party comes up with an outstanding renewable energy goal, which would not only help make the environment less polluted but also create more job opportunities in the sector by 2030, Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt sniffed an ‘extraordinary diversion’ in the ambitious target.

According to the reports of NT News, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten confirmed that a proposal for 50 percent renewable energy goal will be launched officially at the ALP National Conference later in the week. Mr. Shorten expects the plan will ensure environmental sustainability, create more jobs and also bring down the electricity bills to a considerable extent.

"We think climate change is real," Mr. Shorten told in Launceston on Wednesday. "We understand that Australians expect action."

Mr. Hunt, though, regards the move to be a tactic for diverting the attention from the leaked document that suggested the Labour party was considering the revival of a carbon tax. The Labor Party said that its focus is to device an emission trading scheme or to float pollution price and has completely dismissed putting a fixed price on carbon. "This all feels like a massive diversion from a massive leak with massive electricity prices," Mr. Hunt told ABC radio on Wednesday.

The NT News reports, that the critics are concerned about the bipartisan energy target which was recently agreed by the Parliament to be slashed by 20 percent, from 41,000 gigawatt hours to 33,000 gigawatt hours, would fail to attract enough investors since it only spans over the next 5 years, whereas investments in these sectors usually target up to 20 years.

The Skynews reported that, Mr. Hunt said that the policy announced by the Labor Party doesn’t make sense as only a month ago they had cast their votes for a deal with a lower target.

Solar industry has predicted that the move by the Labor party has the potentiality to create 20,000 to 30,000 jobs and it was flagged as the "biggest business opportunity probably in Australia's history" by the Australian Solar Council Chief Executive, John Grimes.

Contact the writer on debleenasarkar26@gmail.com.

RELATED STORIES