Natural Environment Blog

Last night, the Australian government released its federal budget, which included increased spending for environmental issues.

Included in the budget, is:

• $200 million will be allocated to protecting the Great Barrier Reef
• $180 million will be allocated to new protected areas
• $150 million to be allocated to Indigenous conservation
• $500 million will be allocated to a fund for development and deployment of clean coal technologies
• $300 million to be used for a “green loan” scheme. Under the scheme, households will be able to borrow up to $10,000 to make their homes more green. This could include installing solar panels, rainwater tanks, greywater recycling, insulation, solar hot water heaters and energy-smart lighting. The loan will only be available to low to middle income households - those who earn less than $100,000 per year. The benefit of this loan is that it’s available at a low interest rate - a maximum of 2 percent of the annual gross income.

• Money will be spent on increasing the market penetration of renewable energy. Currently in Australia, only 8 percent of electricity comes from renewable sources. The government aims to increase that to 20 percent.
• $3 billion to be allocated to water buybacks.
• In total, $12.9 billion will be allocated to “Water for the Future Plan” over the next 10 years in order to improve Australia’s water supplies.

The response to the budget? Mixed. Although more money is being spent on environmental issues, many green groups believe too much is being allocated to the wrong areas, and that not enough is being done about climate change.

Here are some responses from various environmental groups:

• WWF-Australia’s response - Generally happy with the budget, but more action is required.
• Greenpeace’s response to the budget - Disappointed with the lack of measures to attack climate change. Renewable solutions have been sidelined whilst dirty coal is bankrolled.
• The Greens Party’s response - Budget utterly fails climate and oil challenge.

Tags: Climate Change, environment, Global Warming, Sustainability

Related Posts:

• Australian Government Spends $200 Million to Protect the Great Barrier Reef
• What is the Earth Radiation Budget?
• Reef Rescue to Allocate $23 Million Within a Few Weeks
• Hemp Legalization Bill Finally Passes Through Senate in Vermont
• Reef Report Overreaction?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Conservation, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.