Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources Ian MacFarlane spoke this morning at the Clean Energy Council’s national conference in Adelaide, the first gathering of industry leaders since the Government announced it was abandoning its push to introduce its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

As some $20 billion worth of projects remain on hold, the sector is now betting everything on slated changes to the Renewable Energy Target legislation. MacFarlane spoke positively about the industry, those in attendance say, but wasn’t committing to supporting the amendments just yet.

Abandoning an emissions trading scheme has put the freeze on the renewable energy market, providers say, and the sector is furiously lobbying Canberra to back RET amendments which, in the absence of a price on carbon, is now the “only game in town.”