Turnbull government's greenshift to back renewables

Josh Frydenburg - welcomed a declining
role for coal; a marked change from the
pro-coal rhetoric of the Abbott government.

Malcolm Turnbull's new Environment and Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg, has welcomed a declining role for coal in Australia's future energy mix, talked up reliable green energy, and locked in the current 23.5 per cent renewable energy target by 2020, in a marked change from the avowedly pro-coal rhetoric of the Abbott government.

And he has stated that recent price spikes in South Australia – where energies such as wind and solar power make up 40 per cent plus of supply, and Tasmania where the figure is above to 90 per cent - were not solely the fault of high renewable energy dependencies but to a "complex of factors" including the failure of other energy distribution infrastructure such as Basslink, as well as the effects of drought, a cold snap, and high gas prices arising from inadequate supplies and suppliers.

Read Mark Kenny’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Turnbull government's greenshift to back renewables.”