Is there $10 billion for renewables? > Check the facts
Who: “We have got… $10 billion going into renewables” Christine Milne.
The claim: The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) will use all of its $10 billion to invest in renewable energy.
The facts: The CEFC will be allocated $10 billion over five years. The purpose of these funds is to “facilitate increased flows of finance into the commercialisation and deployment of Australian based renewable energy, energy efficiency and low emissions technologies.”
The definition of low emissions technologies can be found here, but it essentially includes electricity generation from fossil fuel sources that have less than 50 per cent lower emissions intensity than existing generation systems.
Discussion of evidence: The claim that all of the $10 billion of CEFC investment funds will be used for renewable energy is incorrect. The CEFC has the option of investing in three areas, only one of which is renewable energy. The other two include energy efficiency schemes and low emissions technologies.
Low emissions technology has the potential to include gas fired power generation which can have a 50 per cent less emissions intensity than coal fired power generation.
Although the CEFC is not restricted in how much it can invest in any of the three investment areas before 1 July 2018, after this date it must have at least 50 per cent invested in Australian based renewable energy.
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