The Australian Government has set a 20 per cent target for renewable energy by 2020 to expand the use of renewable energy.

To achieve its renewable energy goal by 2020, the Government has committed to increasing the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target from 9500 gigawatt-hours to 45,000 gigawatt-hours in 2020. The Government has undertaken to phase out the expanded MRET measure between 2020 and 2030 as Australia’s emissions trading scheme matures and prices become sufficient to ensure that an MRET is no longer used as a measure to drive deployment of renewable generation technologies.

At the Council of Australian Governments meeting in December 2007, the Commonwealth and States agreed to work cooperatively, commencing early in 2008, to bring the existing MRET and the various state-based targets into a single, expanded national MRET scheme by early 2009. The final design is to be provided to COAG for consideration at its September 2008 meeting.

The Government also has a commitment to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent on 2000 levels by 2050.

In addition to these measures introduced by the Australian Government, there is also an international obligation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. When Australia signed onto the Kyoto Protocol in 1998, an emissions target of 108 per cent of 1990 emissions was set for the first commitment period of 2008 to 2012.

The Rudd Labor Government ratified the Protocol during its first week of office in December 2007, and the ratification came into force on 11 March 2008. See the UNFCCC website for further details about the Kyoto Protocol.

The Australian Government published a report in February 2008 on Australia’s emissions trends.