Renewable Energy Agency will back CCS if reform redrawn

THE taxpayer-funded Australian Renewable Energy Agency will back low-emission technologies if a new reform blueprint is adopted.

THE taxpayer-funded Australian Renewable Energy Agency — the body given a stay of execution following a deal struck with Clive Palmer — will support projects including Carbon Capture and Storage and other low-emission technologies if a new reform blueprint is adopted.

The Business Council of Australia proposals for ARENA are contained in a paper that also urges a swift bipartisan deal on the renewable energy target.

Under a deal that the government struck with the crossbenchers in order to get the $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund through the Senate, the government promised that it would not reintroduce bills to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the ARENA in the spring sitting ­period — which guarantees it would not be abolished before the end of 2014.

In its report on energy policy, the BCA calls for the ARENA’s mandate to be expanded so that as well as overseeing the renewable energy sector it supported “emerging low-emission technology and systems”.

The BCA has previously argued for retaining the ARENA on the grounds there is a case for government-funded investment in research, development and early-stage deployment of low-emissions technologies where the risks involved would spook the private sector.

But the call in the new report is significant given the prospect of continued wrangling over the ARENA.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told the Senate on ­October 30 that the “government’s position is that we are committed to the abolition” of the ARENA and the CEFC.

The BCA’s paper calls on the government to “renew the focus on research and development of technological advancements to support the lowering of emissions from all energy sources and on adaptation to manage the long-term impacts of climate change”.

On the RET, the paper says that, unless a compromise deal is reached on the target, ­investment in wind energy could stall.

“Unless a compromise deal can be reached on the RET, ­investment in wind is unlikely to occur, creating the risk of higher electricity prices for consumers,” the paper says.

The Coalition is pushing Labor MPs to agree to cut the large-scale target.