Brumby takes a lead
while Feds drag their feet
On 26 July the Victorian Government announced the detail of their Climate Change White Paper.
It was headlined by commitments to cut Victoria’s greenhouse pollution by 20 percent by 2020, to replace one quarter of Hazelwood power station by 2014 and to bring existing homes across the state up from an average of 2-stars to 5-star energy efficiency – a policy that could go a long way to meeting our campaign goal of retrofitting One Million Homes across Victoria.
It also formalized policies to attract large scale solar power to Victoria and double the State’s energy efficiency target.
The White Paper puts Victoria at the forefront of climate action in Australia, and is in stark contrast to the weak targets and lack of policy from both the Federal ALP and Coalition. While the science tells us we need to go further, this action is building a bridge from where we currently are to where we need to be on climate action.
Environment Victoria has welcomed the announcements in the White Paper, and is calling on the Victorian Government to commit to replace all of Hazelwood power station before the state election.
Check out our media release on Monday’s announcement here
We’ve been working hard for a good climate white paper for over two years, so thank you all for your hard work pushing for strong climate policies thus far.
In addition, following Monday’s climate announcements, it seems our campaign to Replace Hazelwood, Australia’s dirtiest power station is grabbing all the headlines.
Across the major newspapers, radio and television coverage and national debate, replacing Hazelwood has been the topic of conversation by commentators across the country.
However this is just the beginning, and we’ve still got a long way to go until all parties are committing to completely replace Hazelwood by 2012. Well done to all of you for your hard work and support for this campaign thus far. By doubling our efforts from here on in, just imagine what we can achieve with three months until the state election.
Comments
How we can replace Hazelwood
Thanks for your feedback, and we're thrilled to hear you've been inspired by the campaign.
So too have thousands of Victorians from right across the state who've signed our petition, donated to the campaign, letterboxed their local area, doorknocked their neighbourhood, held public meetings and talked with their politicians about replacing Hazelwood. It's this massive community engagement with the campaign that is really making the difference, and making our leaders sit up and pay attention.
There are a number of ways that you could replace Hazelwood, but here at Environment Victoria we've been really clear that we do not want to see it replaced with imported black coal electricity from NSW. We've been clear in all of our lobbying efforts that the replacements need to be here in Victoria, no just to make sure that we're not replaceing it with more coal, but also to ensure that Victoria sees the job opportunites that will come from the replacements. We're confident that the Premier has received that message, but we're also concerned about the proposed new coal fired power station for Victoria, HRL, and we'll be seeking to ensure that this proposal does not go ahead.
Our report (available here) shows that we can replace hazelwood by the end of 2012 using a combination of energy efficiency, renewable energy and some gas as a transition fuel. The report also only refers to projects that are on the table and ready to go with planning approvals. If we replaced Hazelwood with this combination we could reduce Victoria's greenhouse pollution by 12 percent in just a few years.
replacing hazelwood
this campaign has amazing momentum. It's brilliant and inspired. The only thing that concerns me is what will replace hazelwood in the short term. Is it NSW-sourced energy from black coal plants? Or is the replacement of hazelwood all about conversion of the plant to gas-fired (not good, sure, but better than the current situation). Your thoughts?
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