Rees gives up crucial climate policies

The Rees Government has dumped key elements of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including promises to force big businesses to use less energy and to set a statewide energy efficiency target. But the Minister for Climate Change, Carmel Tebbutt, said that the state was still “a leader in climate change action” after releasing the Government’s response to a review of its climate change measures by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal. The Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, a lobby group for heavy greenhouse gas polluters, told the tribunal it did not support mandatory energy efficiency standards for businesses because they “impose an unnecessary compliance burden on industry” and were not economically efficient. As it announced the climate change policy changes yesterday, the Government also confirmed that it had granted approval for a giant wind farm near Goulburn, which it said could generate enough electricity to power 63,000 homes. The changes in government energy efficiency policy drew fire from the State Opposition and the Greens yesterday. The Opposition said many businesses were despondent about a lack of action to set high benchmarks when many were willing to comply. (July 3, 2009)