11 September 2007The Sydney Morning Herald
Nine out of ten Australians believe a quarter of their electricity should come from renewable energy by 2020, a survey has found.
According to Newspoll figures released by the Australian Conservation Foundation, close to 90 per cent of the 1,200 adults contacted for the phone poll over the first weekend in September, agreed that Australia should aim to produce 25 per cent of the country's electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
The strongest support for that target was from people in the 35-49 age group (94 per cent).
Ninety three per cent of respondents living outside the major cities agreed Australia should aim to become a world leader in renewable energy.
ACF executive director Don Henry said Australia was well endowed with renewable energy resources, like sun, wind and geothermal hot rocks.
"An overwhelming majority of Australians want our political leaders to do more to get our electricity from renewable energy so we get on with the job of cutting greenhouse pollution and tackling climate change," he said.
"Last week's APEC meeting wasted a great opportunity for Australia to provide a leadership role in the region on renewable energy and to set a strong target that would drive immediate large scale public and private investment in renewables.
"Australians want to green-up our energy. With a federal election looming its now up to the major Australian political parties to show they are committed to a strong mandatory renewable energy target."
