Does Greenpeace support the privatisation of the NSW electricity sector?
No. Privatising the electricity sector will only make the job of reforming the polluting energy sector harder. Greenpeace believes that governments must be actively engaged in the electricity sector in the coming decades to ensure that the production and consumption of electricity is consistent with the need to avoid dangerous climate change. If we are to win our battle against climate change, Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by at least 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and to zero as quickly as possible beyond that date. Achieving this will require massive reductions in the amount of electricity that all Australians use – governments will need to implement energy efficiency measures, and replace coal-fired power stations with zero-emission renewable energy technologies. As a result, how electricity is produced, and how much is consumed, cannot be a decision that is left entirely to the market. In addition, meeting our required emission reduction targets will
