Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg stated that government has no plans of scrapping its renewable energy targets, despite the internal assessment and concerns United States President Donald Trump may withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement as reported by ABC News.
The Federal Government has set a target of producing 33,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy by the year 2020, although it was downgraded from 41,000 gigawatt-hours under the Abbott government.
Mr. Frydenberg dismissed the calls from former Prime Minister Abbott to make cancelling the RET the first order of business for this year. Abbott and other conservative MPs claimed that the RET will destroy the South Australian heavy industry because of the rising cost of electricity.
The Federal Government ratified the Paris climate change agreement in November 2016 before the inauguration of Trump. Trump vows to cancel the agreement in early 2017, and claimed that it would give foreign bureaucrats control of how much the United States uses.
Mr. Frydenberg said that he will not hypothesize about what Donald Trump does, but the Australian government’s international commitments of 26% to 28% target will go forward.
The comments came after Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce stated that Australia was known as an honourable negotiator.
Click here to read the full story on ABC News
Solar Trust Centre Team
