Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has decried the vacuum in national energy policy and the triumph of ideology over energy reform at the Smart Energy Summit in Sydney today.
Mr Turnbull departed from towing the Liberal/National line by asserting renewable energy could simultaneously deliver a reduction in dangerous carbon pollution and cheaper electricity for the nation.
NSW Greens Energy spokesperson Jeremy Buckingham said, "The take-over of the Federal Liberal/Nationals by the hard right faction places climate deniers and big mining in the driver's seat of energy policy in Australia and they are quickly accelerating towards a cliff of climate consequences.
"Malcolm Turnbull is dead right. We can't afford to let ideology and idiocy get in the way of the ambitious energy policy needed to deliver a better future for people and the planet.
"Our weather, our water and all our planet's life support systems don't give a stuff about your opinion or ideology, they are governed by fact.
"The science is telling us we are approaching a global crisis where if we don't get out of coal by 2030 then it will be too late to stop catastrophic climate change. The decisions our leaders are making today will determine whether we end coal in time or we risk danger or death.
"If the Federal or NSW governments can't come up with a credible plan that keeps us safely under 1.5 degrees of warming, then they should step aside for leaders who can," he said.
Speaking at the Summit earlier today, NSW Energy Minister Don Harwin talked up his government's 'aspirational' goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 despite having no clear plan for achieving the target.
"The Liberal/National Government had squandered seven years without a strategic energy or climate policy for NSW. In that time, the state's greenhouse gas emissions have grown and it is lagging right at the bottom in terms of renewables across the nation.
"Even the aspirational net-zero emissions target has no credibility with 11 new coal mines in the NSW planning pipeline and no end to coal in sight.
"The NSW Government bet and lost on the Federal government bailing it out with some kind of national energy policy. Now, it's time for voters to have their say on the NSW Liberal/Nationals massive energy and climate failure and the polling suggests they're about to be shown the door from NSW," he said.