Australian Greens Respond to Federal Government Action on Climate Change

Propping up polluting coal and one-off grants send wrong signal to investors

The Australian Greens today welcomed the federal government's financial support for a major solar energy project but said that using publicfunds to prop up polluting coal power was a step in the wrong direction.

Greens energy and climate change spokesperson Senator Christine Milnesaid the first grants under the Low Emissions Technology DemonstrationFund demonstrated the Howard government's inability to get to grips witha major cause of climate change.

"These one-off project announcements are not the signal that investorsneed. They want a price on carbon, something the government utterlyrejects," Senator Milne said in Hobart.

"The Greens welcome financial support for the Solar Systems project inVictoria.

"This is the kind of project the government should have been backing forthe past 10 years instead of driving cutting-edge solar technologydeveloped in Australia offshore because of the absence of a regulatoryframework to support renewable energy.

"That being said, it is widespread commercialisation that will bringdown the costs of renewables in this country - not more ad-hoc researchon one or two projects and in a handful of university laboratories.

"Propping up Hazelwood power station, the dirtiest in the country, is astep in the wrong direction. The carbon capture and storage project willtake three years to bring on line at a time when we need urgent actionto reduce our greenhouse emissions.

"The government is wedded to coal power and until it accepts thatreliance on this fossil fuel is the chief cause of the problem we facethen the Australian public is entitled to question its commitment toaddress the greatest environmental threat facing the planet."