Australia:

Australia to End Renewable Energy Target Scheme (Business Spectator)

(Courtesy CIA.gov)

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will seek to freeze the Renewable Energy Target (RET) at 16,000GWh, effectively ending the scheme, The Australian Financial Review reports.

According to the newspaper, the Dick Warburton-led RET review has been handed to the government, and Mr Abbott met with responsible ministers – Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane – on Sunday to discuss the government's position on the scheme, "which it will put to the bureaucracy for analysis and then to the Cabinet for a final decision".

The meeting is said to have concluded with a determination that the RET be abolished, with the 'grandfathering' of existing large-scale projects, The AFR reports, and the final position will be announced next month.

The RET was a bipartisan policy and its abolition or dilution would mean "sovereign risk will increase more" in Australia, London-based institutional investor, Philip Green of the Children's Investment Master Fund, which has a 33 per cent stake in wind developer Infigen, told the newspaper.

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