Sunday, April 29, 2007

Aussies voters wooed with green and gold

I predicted early on that global warming is going to be a major factor in the Australian federal elections planned for the end of this year. Last week Prime Minister John Howard belatedly recognised this in attempting to divert the focus away from AGW and onto economic management, when he claimed that, "climate change is not the overriding moral challenge for Australians". Then he contradicted himself by clearing the way for a nuclear powered future, using global warming mitigation as his Trojan horse.

This weekend Labor pressed on with its perceived electoral advantage, announcing a policy to subsidise home generated solar energy for households earning under $250,00 per year by way of interest free loans. One big benefit of this approach, to my mind, is that it would stimulate a local solar and renewable energy industry.
clipped from www.smh.com.au

Labor loans for green homes

Phillip Hudson
April 29, 2007 - 12:22PM


About 200,000 households will be able to get cheap loans of up to $10,000 from a Labor Government to install solar panels, water tanks and other ''green'' climate friendly devices, Labor leader Kevin Rudd promised today.

Announcing the $300 million policy at the ALP national conference in Sydney, Mr Rudd said it was a practical ''bread and butter'' plan to help families earning less than $250,000 a year to make their homes more energy and water efficient.

He claimed the policy could generate up to $2 billion worth of green inspired investment and work for small business, especially tradespeople.

He said it would cut up to $800 a year from household energy and water bills and ''increase the value of their homes''.


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2 comments:

Sam Clifford said...

Taken straight from the UK Liberal Democrats but it's still a great idea that deserves to be implemented. Rebates currently offered assume you have the money to cover the initial cost and after a short wait you get up to half of it back. The loans give people that money right now and the interest can be paid out of the energy bill savings.

Wadard said...

Thank you for sourcing that for me.

As you say - it is still worthwhile and only 'ups the ante' for the other parties to follow.