Blog | 27th Jul, 2010

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.

Read the opinion piece by Environment Victoria’s Campaign’s Director Mark Wakeham online in The Age today

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.

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