Labor dishes up dog's breakfast of Liberal leftovers on climate

Greens’ climate change spokesperson and Co-Deputy Leader, Adam Bandt, said that Labor’s climate announcement today was a jumble of Liberal party ideas without any plan to transition out of thermal coal. Mr Bandt also said his party would oppose the ‘fake action’ of international offsets contained in Labor’s plan. The Greens will work to kick Scott Morrison’s government out but then toughen up Labor’s proposals in the Senate.

Greens announce climate and energy election plan

A shortlist with coal is a shortcut to climate change

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today reacted to the Coalition’s so-called ‘shortlist’ of underwriting projects that include coal, re-iterating his intention to stop the Commonwealth from using taxpayer dollars on coal-fired power.

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today launched the Greens’ six point plan to help small businesses reduce power bills, improve their energy efficiency and switch over to clean energy. Mr Bandt delivered a presentation announcing the policies at a Council of Small Business Organisations Australia roundtable in Melbourne.

From July 1, 2019, the Greens will introduce a $2.2 billion battery storage fund providing household battery storage incentives of up to $7000 per battery (tapering down annually to July 1, 2023). Each quarter, $137.5 million will be made available for use from the fund.

Battery storage in Australia is taking off, with household battery storage uptake tripling in 2017 and expected to reach 33,000 in 2018. However, the Greens recognise the industry is still developing and this boost will improve access for households and help manufacturers reduce costs and increase production.

Lines attributable to Adam Bandt MP, Greens climate change and energy spokesperson:

“After this warning from the Reserve Bank, the Coalition and Labor can no longer avoid having a plan to transition out of coal in an orderly manner.

“Australia’s central economic institution has just confirmed we could tip past the 1.5 degree global warming threshold in as soon as 10 years.

A veritable army will fight new coal; Greens tell Nats on ‘big stick’ legislation to ‘bring it on’.

Snowy 2.0 isn’t enough: Greens

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today responded to the Snowy Hydro 2.0 announcement, noting that if the government was serious about energy storage, it would put in place a national storage target and incentives for storage across the electricity network.

“Snowy Hydro is not enough,” said Mr Bandt.

Scott Morrison’s Emissions Reduction Fund is nothing more than a rort designed to funnel taxpayers’ money to his big coal mates and the funding would be better spent helping coal communities to transition, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

“Coal is the world’s biggest driver of climate change and Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal. Without a plan to shift away from coal, this government has no plan to fight climate change, ”said Senator Di Natale.