Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has backed a colleague’s claim that Australia could be totally powered by renewable energy within a decade, despite others calling the claim unrealistic.
“(Senator) Larissa (Waters) is simply stating what is possible if we really want to ward off dangerous climate change,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
“We’ve got - with the Gillard government - this quite remarkable (carbon tax) package through the parliament … but of course we can’t rest on our laurels and we’ll be looking at how we can improve on that in the future.”
Senator Brown insisted that putting a price on carbon did not mean putting an end to action on climate change, with a new international report showing the world is fast approaching the point of no return.
“On current trajectory, the world’s going to lose the opportunity … the door will be shut,” he said.
“We really need to be taking this seriously.”
Senator Waters said various studies showed the 100 per cent renewable energy target could be achieved in 10 years, however acting Queensland Premier Andrew Fraser disputed the claim and described the Greens as “delusional”.
Senator Brown backed the $23 a tonne starting price for the carbon tax when it starts in July, despite new concerns it will put Australian businesses at a disadvantage.
European prices are hovering at about half that cost because of economic uncertainty in the region.
“The European price has been fluctuating greatly and Europe could quite easily be at the same point in a year or two,” Senator Brown.
A market-based emissions trading scheme will begin operating in Australia mid-2015.
Nationals senate leader Barnaby Joyce said the Greens were not satisfied with the measures they had gained already.
“They want to take it to the next step,” he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
There would be dire consequences for the economy if the Greens succeeded in their push to remove fossil fuels from power generation within a decade.
“We aren’t going to have much to talk about in a decade’s time because we’ll be all stone motherless broke,” Senator Joyce said.
