Shelved ETS funds clean energy programs
Updated
The new fund will be used to support renewable energy projects like wind and solar power. (flickr.com: dbking)
The Government remains committed to its controversial emissions trading scheme “over the medium term”, but in the meantime it will be concentrating on providing more support for Australia’s renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors.
Money saved by the shelving of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) will be redirected into a $652 million new Renewable Energy Future Fund over the next four years.
Forming part of the $5.1 billion Clean Energy Initiative, the fund will be used to support renewable energy projects like wind and solar power as well as to encourage households to reduce their energy usage.
And there will be $30 million over two years for a national campaign to “educate the community in climate change”.
The money includes funds to set up a new website as well as run ad campaigns in the print media and on radio and television.
More than $100 million will be spent on advising more than 600,000 households on ways to improve energy and water efficiency under the new-look Green Loans program.
The budget papers confirm the ill-starred CPRS will not be reintroduced to parliament before the end of 2012 and “will only do so after this time if there is sufficient international action” from major world economies like the US, China and India.
In the drought-hit Murray-Darling system an additional $100 million is being brought forward for water buybacks to help restore southern Australia’s parched wetlands to health.
There is also an extra $20.1 million for marine conservation, with $12 million over two years for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
First posted