Together, let’s move Queensland out of the dirty energy past and into the clean energy future. Rooftop by rooftop, communities across Queensland are nudging our sunshine state towards a sun-powered future. In fact, Queenslanders are world leaders at harvesting sunshine! But right now, too many people don’t have access to clean energy. They are being left behind with dirty old energy that’s damaging our climate and harming our communities. We know we need to cut pollution and shift to clean energy, fast. To make this happen – and enable everyone, everywhere, to power their lives with clean energy – our government must step up and lead. We call on the Queensland Government to commit to an ambitious renewable energy target, phase out coal-fired power and invest in large-scale clean energy projects across our state. It’s time to shine!
The Transition to Clean Energy
To stop damaging our climate, we know we must plan to rapidly phase out burning coal and gas for electricity and power our lives with 100% clean energy instead. By digging up and burning coal and gas, we are damaging our climate, harming our communities and warming our oceans. As a result, we have already lost almost a quarter of the Great Barrier Reef following the worst coral bleaching event in history. Investing in renewable energy will create thousands of long-term, good jobs across Queensland and will help safeguard precious places like the Great Barrier Reef for future generations. Queensland is one the sunniest places on Earth. Harvesting the sun’s renewable energy just makes sense, so it’s no surprise that Queenslanders have embraced solar. Right now, almost one in three households across Queensland are powering their lives with their own rooftop solar PVs. That’s 473,000 installations – one of the highest numbers of households with solar PVs, per head of the population, in the world. The Queensland Government has taken some positive first steps. It has set up a Renewable Energy Expert Panel to establish a credible pathway to power Queensland with 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030. It has also committed to a target of one million solar-powered households and businesses by 2020.
The Queensland Government should honour its commitment to a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 by enshrining it in legislation and implementing a suite of policies to support and accelerate the transition. This should include a goal to exceed the target and a review process to increase or bring the target forward. To accelerate the transition to renewable energy, the Queensland Government should implement a suite of policies (see below) within the next 12-18 months to address three key priorities:
• Make its policy commitments into law in 2017 and regularly review the state’s renewable energy target.
• Accelerate renewable energy uptake and modernise the electricity system to support variable, dispatchable and decentralised energy solutions.
• Phase out coal-fired power stations in a smooth and orderly manner by 2035 and help people who work in polluting industries and their communities transition to new jobs with a future.