A new report from the Climate Institute indicates solar power continues to be a preferred energy source by many Australian. For coal, there’s little love for them according to Energy Matters.
The Climate of the Nation 2016 includes the outcome of a survey of more than 2,000 Australians about their attitudes to climate change and related issues.
When asked to rank their top 3 choices energy sources, 86% of correspondents included solar energy and 70% chose wind power, which is up from 85% and 69% respectively from last year. Only 12% of respondents listed coal among their top 3 energy choices.
59% chose solar power as their preferred energy source, which is 5x as much as wind energy at 11% and about 29x more than coal at 3%. 6% are for nuclear energy and 4% is for gas.
3 in four Australians agree that it’s inevitable that the nation’s coal-fired power generation has to be replaced. Also, this proportion of Australian agree that governments need to implement a plan that will ensure the closure of old coal plants and be replaced with clean energy.
South Australia bid goodbye to their local coal-fired power generation this year, 76% of SA people wanted to see coal phased out slowly. 33% of Western Australians want to see coal and gas plants phased out as soon as possible.
Many Australians have accepted that climate change is happening, and more are seeing economic opportunity in the clean energy future as stated by John Connor, CEO of The Climate Institute.
Click here to read the full story in Energy Matters and here to view the full report in PDF
Featured Image Credit: Kevin Dooley