The process of bringing together State and Federal renewable energy targets is well underway following the second meeting of the COAG Working Group on Climate Change and Water.

Following agreement from the Working Group at a meeting today in Sydney, COAG will now consider an implementation plan to deliver the new national expanded Renewable Energy Target by 2009.

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, said a nationally consistent renewable energy target would stimulate much needed investment in clean energy to reduce greenhouse emissions.

“Bringing existing State based targets into one national target provides consistency for investors looking to support Australia’s renewable energy industry.”

The national scheme will include a legislated target of 45,000 gigawatt-hours of renewables-based electricity in 2020. This will ensure 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply will be sourced from renewables by 2020.

Senator Wong said the Working Group had also agreed to recommend to COAG a review of current climate change mitigation initiatives in all jurisdictions, in the context of the Government’s commitment to emissions trading, with a view to a final report to COAG in 2009.

The Working Group also considered harmonising State feed-in tariffs for solar and other renewable energy technologies, proposing the preparation of an options paper on a nationally consistent approach to feed-in tariffs for COAG by the end of June.

Senator Wong said action on energy efficiency was also well underway, with a scoping exercise involving current and planned energy efficiency measures across jurisdictions being undertaken, as well as an evaluation of successful international programs that could be applied in Australia.

The meeting was also presented with a range of options to progress the National Water Initiative. The COAG Working Group on Climate Change and Water is comprised of officials from all Australian Governments and is chaired by Senator Wong.

This inclusion of Federal Ministers in the working group process was a key outcome of the Rudd Government’s first COAG meeting in December 2007.  The working group will report on its progress to the COAG meeting on 26 March.