The balance between reliability and emissions

Launceston, Australia

IT WOULD be easy to dismiss the Australian government's discarding of a renewable energy target as a Donald Trump-like attempt to cling on to polluting fossil fuels in the face of the rise of cleaner alternatives.

Certainly, the decision by the centre-right Liberal Party federal government to end subsidies for renewable energy projects and reject advice to set a clean energy target has the appearance of being an abandonment of efforts to mitigate climate change.

There will be no shortage of accusations that Prime Minister Malcolm Tu…