The day after Clive Palmer announced he would oppose the Abbott government’s efforts to abolish the 20 per cent renewable energy target, the price of market-traded renewable energy certificates jumped 27 per cent. The same day shares in Infigen, a company with a big portfolio of renewable energy generation, jumped 16 per cent. The next day, as the news sunk in, the shares rose another 2 per cent.

But while the renewable energy end of the sharemarket reacted favourably to Clive’s big announcement with Al Gore, some reacted with pessimism and hostility. The Greens and Labor have every right to defend their now identical approach that abandons the carbon tax in favour of an immediate ETS. But the Palmer United Party’s plans to protect the RET, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Climate Change Authority need to be encouraged or risk being unwound.