CANBERRA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government's signature energy policy will do little to cut the country's carbon emissions, a report has found.
The final report on the national energy guarantee (NEG), released by the Energy Security Board (ESB) on Wednesday, projected that the emissions reduction target included in the policy would be 97 percent complete by the time the NEG is due to be implemented in 2021.
It also found that households connected to the National Electricity Market (NEM) would save approximately 550 Australian dollars (about 407 U.S. dollars) per year on electricity.
However, only 150 Australian dollars of those savings were "directly attributable" to the NEG and prices would begin to rise sharply again towards 2030.
The report has been delivered to the leaders of Australia's states as they decide whether to support the NEG ahead of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on Aug. 10.
The governments of Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) have been critical of the policy, saying that the goal of reducing emissions by 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 was not ambitious enough.
However, the document made it clear that the states and territories can support the NEG without committing to the emissions reduction.
"Support by the Energy Council for the detailed design of the Guarantee mechanism, as summarised in this paper, does not constitute approval, agreement or endorsement of the elements of the emissions reduction requirement that are the responsibility of the Australian government," it said.
The report also revealed that the country's biggest energy users will not be held responsible for the reliability of the NEM as was suggested in the first draft of the NEG with an opt-in system to be introduced instead for companies who believe such a system could be beneficial.
