Australia targets 20 percent renewable energy by 2020

Australia's government will ask the Senate to approve plans to produce 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 after the house rejected a proposed carbon trading scheme.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's centre-left Labour government passed the ambitious proposal to use green power to generate a fifth of the country's electricity in Parliament's lower house late Monday.

But it faces a potential hurdle in the Senate, where independents hold the balance of power and can scupper the Government's bid to have the renewables target in place before UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

The conservative opposition joined forces with the Greens and independent senators last week to reject an emissions trading scheme aimed at cutting carbon pollution by five to 25 percent over the next decade.

However, Greens senator Christine Milne indicated the renewables target would receive a warmer reception than the emissions scheme because it was the best option being put forward by the Government.

AFP