Industry minister immediately rules out compromise target of 33,500 gigawatt hours and says Coalition will keep negotiating with Senate crossbench

Labor says it will accept a lower renewable energy target, backing a compromise floated by the Clean Energy Council, in an effort to end the political stalemate which has sparked an investment drought in the sector.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said on Wednesday Labor would accept an RET of 33,500 gigawatt hours by 2020 – the benchmark set recently by the renewables sector – “to stop the loss of further jobs and investment”.

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