The board of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund, set up to support infrastructure investment, recommended a loan of up to $280 million for Neoen’s $380 million Kaban wind farm, located west of Cairns in the Atherton Tablelands.
Federal Resources and Northern Australia Minister Keith Pitt used his powers in early May to veto the loan.
The Kaban Green Power Hub is designed to generate enough energy to power 96,000 homes and it would create 250 jobs during construction.
Pitt ignored the facts that wind is now one of the cheapest energy solutions and the scientists’ warnings that we must rapidly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels to avoid a climate catastrophe. His decision is even more proof that the federal government is ideologically opposed to a clean energy future.
The International Energy Agency’s report, released mid-May, said the world should ban fossil fuels and move to net zero emissions by 2050.
Thousands of young people marched across Australia demanding climate action in the school climate strike in May.
The ideological stand of the federal government can no longer be tolerated. We in the Far North of Queensland understand the threat of climate change to the Great Barrier Reef; our community depends on healthy coral for the thousands of jobs in the tourism industry.
Ministers’ failure to support the clean energy future is a crime future generations will never forgive. The world is moving rapidly to a clean energy and a sustainable future. We have no other choice.
Australia will be left behind unless we act urgently to move away from fossil fuels. We have the technology: we have abundant resources in solar, wind and wave. All we lack are the political leadership and policies.