Clean Energy Target

On 23 September 2007, the federal government announced a national Clean Energy Target, which provides a single, comprehensive renewable and low emissions energy target. The target is 30,000 gigawatt hours per year of low emissions electricity by 2020, which is additional to the existing renewable baseline of around 16,000 gigawatt hours. This target is equivalent to the sum total of all existing and planned targets under federal, state and territory renewable and low emissions energy target schemes.The federal government's plan is to reduce red tape for industry, and energy costs to the economy, by rationalising existing and planned federal and state/territory target schemes into a single national scheme. It is also intended that the Clean Energy Target will provide additional investment momentum to the deployment of renewable and other low emissions electricity generation technologies in the early years of the Australian Emissions Trading Scheme.The Clean Energy Target will cover all renewable energy technologies and those low emissions technologies that emit less than 200 kilograms of greenhouse gases per megawatt hour of electricity supplied. For example, it will include electricity generated from fossil fuels where carbon dioxide capture and storage is used.The measure will be developed as soon as practicable, for commencement no later than 1 January 2010.This policy was subsequently dropped with the change in federal government in November 2007.

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