Australia's upper house passed legislation to require that 20 percent of the country's electricity come from renewable sources such as the sun and wind by 2020, matching European standards and up from about 8 percent now.
The law would quadruple the renewable energy target set by the previous government in 2001 and provide enough clean electricity to power the households of all 21 million Australians.
The target matches one set in 2007 by the European Union, which leads the world in green power technology.
However, the bill passed only after the government reached a deal with the major opposition party to increase government assistance to energy intensive industries, notably aluminum production, and coal mining.
The Australian government is hoping that the amount of electricity coming from sources like solar, wind and geothermal will be around the same as all of Australia’s current household electricity use in 10 years time.
Matthew Warren, chief executive of Australia’s Clean Energy Council welcomed the move, saying: "This is to date the most significant piece of climate change legislation in Australian history. It is the result of bipartisan support within the Parliament and years of hard work by many in the emerging clean energy industry. The RET legislation will be the foundation of clean energy policy in Australia for the next decade. But our job has only just begun. We need to raise more than AUS $20 billion [US $16.8 billion] to finance new clean energy projects over the next decade to help create 28,000 new clean jobs."
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