The Smart Energy Council has proposed a minimum 45 per cent reduction in electricity emissions by 2030.
Chief executive of the Smart Energy Council John Grimes describes emission reductions of 26-28 per cent by 2030 proposed under the NEG as absurd and says electricity emissions need to be significantly reduced.
“We need a strong national emissions reduction target. We need to halve our carbon pollution from electricity by 2030,” he says.
The SEC is calling on the state and territory governments to make their support of the NEG conditional on the federal government setting more ambitious targets and the ability to properly account for over achievement by states and territories as additional to national targets.
SEC also wants states to agree to a bottom line for emissions reductions or an Emissions Reduction Safeguard of no less than two per cent a year from 2020 to lead Australia to decarbonisation by 2050.
Failing that and under the NEG it would take more than two centuries based on annual reductions of less than 0.5 per cent each year after 2020.
“States must retake the initiative and set the Emissions Reduction Safeguard as a floor for further negotiation and ultimate adoption of the NEG,” John Grimes says. “They must also ensure that there will be no NEG unless the Emissions Reduction Safeguard is in place and operational.”
