Climate change campaigners in South Australia have kept up pressure on the independent Senator Nick Xenophon to commit himself to protecting the Renewable Energy Target (RET). Hundreds of people attended a forum this week to demand the Senator commit to blocking any potential changes to the RET. They said renewable energy employment could make up for some of South Australias job losses in other fields. But Senator Xenophon refused to promise anything, saying only that he was open to RET negotiations. Mr Green was worried the potential changes to the target could produce more job losses. There are 13,000 people employed in the solar industry at the moment and conservative estimates suggest that between a third and a half of those jobs would be lost if these [federal] recommendations were adopted, he said. There are also 21,000 people employed in the renewable energy sector as a whole, so including wind, and many of those wind workers would be out of a job by Christmas as well. Read more: abc.net.au/news/2014-10-09/renewable-energy-target-campaigners-pressure-nick-xenophon/5800732
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 23:57:22 +0000