ALP to launch climate policy Friday

A major boost to solar power and "hot rocks" geothermal energy will be at the centre
of Labor's climate change policy, to be released on Friday.
The announcement will open up a new front in the election campaign as Labor tries to
rebuild its climate credentials ahead of the August 21 poll.
After Labor failed in its bid to set up an ETS, Prime Minister Julia Gillard vowed
to come up with a fresh climate policy when she took over the top job last month.
Voters have had to wait as the government spent weeks working on the new policy.
Ms Gillard has decided to come forward with policies on the issue ahead of the
pivotal leaders' debate in Canberra on Sunday night.
The policy is understood to funnel more money to solar panels and geothermal energy
- sending water deep underground to where there are "hot rocks", then returning it
to the surface to generate electricity.
Geothermal energy is baseload energy and it's emissions-free - but it's also expensive.
The government has $652 million which had been set aside for the ETS. Much of that
money will be redirected to renewable energy.
The policy is also expected to contain a boost for energy efficiency - cutting
greenhouse gas emissions by reducing electricity use.
This is considered a relatively cheap way to tackle global warming, but Australia
has done little on this front to date. Some states already have energy efficiency
schemes.
It's understood that the policy will not bring forward a carbon price.
Ms Gillard has repeatedly stated that the government will review the need for a
carbon price in 2012.
Climate change helped get Labor elected in 2007. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
described it as "the great moral challenge of our times" and vowed to start an ETS
in 2010.
But the issue has become a very difficult one for Labor. The government's decision,
made earlier this year, to delay the ETS cost public support and contributed to Mr
Rudd's downfall.
Other climate programs - home insulation and Green Loans for homes - have also failed.
The Liberals have already announced their climate policy: a $3.2 billion "direct
action" fund which would capture carbon emissions and store them in the soil and
trees. The Liberals do not support a carbon price.



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