In case you’re wondering about the strength of the Government’s anti-climate change agenda, consider this:
Australia’s investment in renewable energy all but dried up in the first half of 2014 amid uncertainty fuelled by the government’s latest review of the mandatory target, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
In the six months to June, just $40 million was invested in large-scale renewable energy, such as wind farms, the lowest level since the first half of 2001, according to Kobad Bhavnagri, head of BNEF’s Australian unit.
The investment tally compared with $2.691 billion in 2013, the second largest annual inflow of funds to the clean energy sector behind the peak year of 2010.
…Kane Thornton, deputy chief executive of industry group Clean Energy Council, said “the industry’s basically at a standstill right now” in Australia.
…According to BNEF, global investment in clean energy – both large- and small-scale – soared by a third in the second quarter of 2014 to $US63.6 billion (A$68 billion), the largest quarterly inflow in two years.
Australia confronts an historic capital investment cliff in the mining sector that is large enough to threaten recession for the next three years. Yet here is the Abbott Government throwing away billions in private sector capex that is beating down the door. That says to me that either its political associations with dirty energy or its anti-climate change ideology is so strong that it overwhelms even it own interests.
