WWF-AUSTRALIA WELCOMES ALP’S COMMITMENTS TO HELP AUSTRALIA BECOME A RENEWABLES SUPERPOWER

The World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia today welcomed Labor’s climate policy as a “step in the right direction” toward Australia becoming a renewable export superpower.

“Australia has the right ingredients to become a world leader in renewables and strong targets and policy certainty are needed to help make that happen,” said Dermot O’Gorman, CEO, WWF-Australia.

Research from WWF-Australia, BCF, ACTU and ACF showed investing in a clean export industry could generate 395,000 new jobs and $89 billion in new trade for Australia by 2040.

“Hundreds of thousands of jobs would provide significant economic growth, particularly for regional communities, while addressing the climate crisis,” Mr O’Gorman said.

WWF-Australia welcomed measures such as establishing the Powering the Regions Fund, investing $3 billion in renewable manufacturing, supporting workers to retrain in renewable powered industry, and investing in network capacity to connect more renewables to the grid – one of the biggest barriers slowing down the transition.

“The ALP policy prioritises climate solutions like renewables, electrification and clean manufacturing and progresses the move away from fossil fuels. However, although the policy is heading in the right direction, it does not go far enough or fast enough,” Mr O’Gorman said.

“WWF encourages all sides of politics to do more on climate policy and the transition to renewables, to ensure Australia is meeting our commitments under the Paris Agreement, aligned with a maximum 1.5 degrees of warming."

“If we are to build a renewable future, and afford our children the chance to experience the Great Barrier Reef and all of Earth’s ecosystems in the future, we need to accelerate this ambition and ensure that all policy commitments are informed by the best available climate science” Mr O’Gorman said.