Over 70% of Australians back renewables goal - poll

Jun 23, 2014 - About 71% of people in Australia support the current level of the country’s renewable energy target (RET) and even want it to be increased, a survey by The Climate Institute shows.

In a similar poll in 2013 some 69% supported the current or a higher goal. The RET now stands at some 41,000 GWh of renewables power in 2020, which is estimated to represent 20% of Australia's total electricity needs at the end of the decade.

At present, Australia’s renewables sector is waiting for the results of an ongoing review of the RET programme.

According to the Climate Institute’s latest poll, conducted by JWS Research, about 60% of Australia’s residents back an increased target. Only 9% of those polled support a reduction of the target or its abandoning, while one in five people could not respond. Some 80% said they preferred renewable energy to electricity coming from coal, gas and nuclear power plants.

The full results from the survey, which included 1,145 participants, are to be officially presented on Monday.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) warned in May that the reduction of the RET in Australia may lead to an AUD-12-billion (USD 11.3bn/EUR 8.3bn) drop in investment in the sector and 6,600 fewer renewable energy jobs per year. If the RET is abandoned altogether, clean energy investment is expected to fall by AUD 21 billion and the number of clean energy jobs per year will go down by 11,100.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.944/EUR 0.694)

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