Electricity generated by burning native Australian timber no longer classified as renewable energy

Electricity generated by burning native forest wood waste will no longer be allowed to be classified as renewable energy under a regulatory change adopted by the Albanese government.

The decision, which Labor had promised to consider after it was recommended by a Senate committee in September, reverses a 2015 Abbott government move which allowed burning native forest timber to be counted alongside solar and wind energy towards the national renewable energy target.

The announcement comes as the native forestry is under increasing economic and environmental pressure across the country. In Victoria, a landmark supreme court judgment last month found the state logging company, VicForests, had failed to protect threatened glider species and that its methods to check for them before logging were inadequate.

It has raised further doubts over whether the native forest logging industry will remain viable in the state until a promised government-ordered phase out in 2030. In WA, native forest logging is due to end in 2024.

The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, signalled last week the government wanted to work with the states to ensure new national environmental standards it has promised to introduce would be applied to regional forestry agreements, a step that could end an effective exemption for state-sanctioned logging from national environment laws.