Australia may be one of the world’s largest suppliers of coal, however if Australia’s major cities follow in the footsteps of Canberra, we could see our greenhouse gas emissions drop considerably.

ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr announced this week that Canberra will be the first capital and largest city to be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2025.

Renewable energy is generally sourced from wind or solar, which makes Australia one of the world’s best solar energy resources, according to a report by the Melbourne Energy Institute.

“Australia is one of the areas with better solar radiation and forms part of the international ‘sun belt’,” explained the report.

Barr said in a statement, “Canberra can and should be a beacon for everyone who realises the world must act decisively now to stave off a future of catastrophic climate change.”

The first step towards their goal, will be ensuring 90% of energy needs are delivered via renewable sources by 2020.

“We can do this. We have shown it’s possible – now we have one small step left. 100% renewable energy will drive further jobs growth in our research and corporate sectors.”

“We’ve already seen a 400% increase in renewable energy jobs in the past five years, and there will be more to come.”

The news comes as Ergon Energy is set to trial a hybrid energy scheme across 33 regional Queensland homes, to see if solar battery-powered homes could be the solution to bringing down Australia’s carbon footprint.

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