In a move that appears to further damage Australia’s reputation as an environmentally-friendly nation, the senate last night passed a number of amendments to the renewable energy target (RET), which includes an unpopular move to define native wood waste as a renewable fuel source.
Extended negotiations have resulted in the RET being reduced from 41,000 gigawatt hours to 33,000, with the legislation being passed in a senate vote of 41 to 14.
The agreement, as was struck by a Labor and Coalition deal in Melbourne earlier this year, will see trade-exposed industries exempted from the target and the two-yearly reviews that had proven to be a major sticking point have also been removed.
However, the inclusion of native wood waste as a renewable not only poses direct risk to fragile Australian ecologies, it also weakens the logging industry’s already diminished position, green groups have said.
Wilderness Society national director Lyndon Schneiders said in a recent press release that changes to the RET laws mean “consumers could be powering their homes with burnt trees that used to be the homes of endangered species.”
“The native forestry industry is in dire straits across the country, but burning native forests for power moves the industry even further away from a sustainable, high-value future.
“The Liberal Government claims a monopoly on supporting the forestry industry, but its primary contribution appears to be head-in-the-sand promotion of logging practices that are out of step with market sustainability requirements, and an obsession with blaming conservation groups for every industry failure,” he said.
Schneiders also congratulated Labor and the Greens for their attempts to remove the amendment specifically concerning the burning of native wood, as well as the individual efforts of Queensland senator Glenn Lazarus.
Other amendments will see the creation of a commissioner for wind farms, as well as the set up of a new scientific committee charged with investigating the potential negative side effects of living near wind turbines.