follow our blog CPRS voted down

01 Dec 2009

Today has been another interesting day in politics. The Rudd Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has been defeated in the Senate with a vote of 32-41.

The Government has stated that they will reintroduce the CPRS into Parliament on the first day of sitting next year in February. The Bill will include all of the amendments previously agreed to in the Liberal party room.

This includes commitments to making voluntary actions by households additional to the 2020 target as a part of their Emissions Trading legislation – including all existing and future GreenPower purchases – as well as developing a new Energy Efficiency mechanism in 2010 with input from a new Prime Minister's Task Group on Energy Efficiency.

Green Energy Trading believe that these particular amendments regarding GreenPower and Energy Efficiency are important in supporting families and progressive businesses who want to take actions to reduce their emissions. Making GreenPower sales additional to the 2020 target will increase the demand for renewable energy generation (and thereby boost REC prices) as there is one REC surrendered for every one MWh of GreenPower purchased.

A new Energy Efficiency mechanism would help to ensure that home grown Energy Efficiency would play a larger role in meeting our emissions targets and in supporting Green Jobs in this sector in Australia.