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24 September 2007 - Australian Prime Minister John Howard has announced a new national clean energy target requiring that 30 000 GWh per year come from low emission sources by 2020.
Howard says the national target will replace existing state and territory schemes, and would see about 15 per cent of energy produced by zero and low emissions technology by 2020. That will include solar and wind, but could also mean energy from fossil fuels - if the carbon emissions are captured and stored.
The national scheme is designed to replace the individual state and territory schemes. "The great virtue of this is it will establish a single national target and over the past few years the states have regularly called on the Commonwealth to have a single national scheme," he said.
However, the Federal Opposition has strongly criticised the Government's announcement of a clean energy target, saying it represents a backward step for the renewable energy sector. Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett said it could mean less renewable energy is actually produced.
He said: "This clean energy target is all about rationalising existing schemes. It opens up the renewable energy target to nuclear power, and it will not and can not represent any advance, or any increase, or any support of any significance for our renewable energy sector.
"We need substantial, committed and significant increases in the mandatory renewable energy target in order to increase the use of renewable energy."
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