Australia’s government has dropped plans for introducing a
Clean Energy Target (CET) post-2020, opting instead for a technology-neutral
plan that it claimed would prioritise reliability and bringing prices down.
The new policy, known as the National Energy Guarantee,
hands power to the nation’s utilities allowing them to choose the energy mix
that suits them, with no real driver or target for clean energy, and no clear
subsidy or direction once the Renewable Energy Target (RET) comes to a close in
2020.
The Department for Energy and Environment stated: “The
government is acting on the Chief Scientist’s recommendation that new measures
are needed to improve reliability and investment certainty in the electricity
sector. To do this, we will take the advice of the independent Energy Security
Board and implement a new National
Energy Guarantee.”
