Victorian Climate Collaboration - Our Policy Platform

Victoria has everything it needs to rapidly cut emissions, and is already on its way to a clean energy future:

• Renewables now supply over 40 percent of Victoria’s electricity, driving down emissions and wholesale electricity prices, and the state has legislated targets of 95% renewable energy by 2035.
• Hazelwood has closed, Energy Australia’s Yallourn will close in 2028 and AGL’s Loy Yang A is set to close in 2035. Loy Yang B is the only power station that has not reached an agreement for closure compatible with Victoria’s legislated renewable energy targets.
• Offshore wind targets are legislated.
• Household solar uptake is strong.
  The next government MUST have a plan to keep our energy transition on track while delivering real outcomes and opportunities for communities and workers.

After electricity, transport is the state’s second largest and fastest growing source of emissions. We need to decarbonise Victoria’s transport sector and address transport inequity by providing low-carbon transport options for all Victorians.

Clean energy and transport allow people to breathe easier, live longer, and face fewer climate‑related health threats. The shift to renewable energy will not only cut emissions, but reduce air pollution and secure future energy supply.

Policy asks

1. Maintain Victoria’s position as the national leader in renewable energy by upholding Victoria’s legislated clean energy targets.
2. End approvals for fossil gas projects and accelerate progress on the Gas Substitution Roadmap.
3. Fund a rollout of community energy projects, including support for community-led engagement and participation in culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
4. Expand training pathways for renewables, transmission, offshore wind, circular economy and ecological restoration.
5. Rule out nuclear power.
6. Commit to transformational network reform of buses in Melbourne’s Western suburbs to enable mode shift away from cars and onto public transport. This needs to be coupled with investments in walking and cycling infrastructure. Learn more about the Better Busses campaign >>
7. Require all Shire Councils in Victoria to set strong carbon emissions reduction targets by 2030, 2035 and 2040.

The transition only succeeds if it works for everyone. It must be equitable.

Victorians are struggling with rising prices and worried about energy and economic security.

Clean energy solutions make homes healthier, more comfortable and more affordable to power. But the benefits of solar, batteries and electrification are not evenly shared. Renters, apartment residents, low-income households, culturally and linguistically diverse communities and many regional areas face structural barriers.

The next phase of our energy transition must expand these benefits to ensure clean energy delivers for all Victorians. Without targeted support, vulnerable households will continue to face higher bills, poorer health and reduced security while others benefit from the transition. This needs to be matched with community-based engagement so that households across Victoria, including multicultural communities, can understand, participate in and benefit from the clean energy transition.

At a time where war is disrupting fragile fossil fuel supply chains, clean renewable energy provides a buffer against energy shocks and builds the resilience of our community and economy.

Policy Asks

1. Invest $1.5bn over ten years in an expanded Solar Homes Program, with measures to ensure the benefits of affordable clean energy are extended to groups who have traditionally been locked out, including renters, low income households and culturally and linguistically diverse communities living in apartments or public housing.
2. Increase the energy efficiency of Victorian rental homes to deliver better quality of life and lower bills for renters, while reducing demand on the electricity grid.
3. Provide subsidies, rebates, and no interest loans for low-income private renters and owner-occupiers to bridge the affordability gap for retrofits with the Victorian Energy Upgrades and Solar Homes programs.
4. Accelerate the switch to all-electric homes with a strategy to electrify apartment buildings, and commit to rolling out the minimum rental standards and building electrification standards that will see broken gas hot water systems (and heaters for rentals) replaced with efficient electric alternatives. Continue Electrification Education Program, including multilingual resources, culturally relevant outreach and partnerships with trusted community organisations to support households through the transition to all-electric homes.
5. Support Victorians to lower their energy bills and slash emissions by funding Local Energy Hubs, community groups and Sustainability Victoria to deliver crucial information and advice on everything from home solar and electrification to large-scale solutions. This must include trusted multilingual support and community-based engagement in culturally diverse communities.
6. Solar and batteries for public schools and early childhood learning centres.

Climate impacts are already affecting communities across Victoria. Fires, floods, heatwaves and water stress are increasing. Victoria’s Climate Resilience Inquiry and The National Climate Risk Assessment (NCRA) confirm the climate risks Victoria faces now and in the future. These are cascading, compounding and happening simultaneously. It is the responsibility of government to communicate these risks clearly to communities, in ways that are accessible and culturally appropriate to all communities, including through multilingual communication and partnerships with trusted local organisations.

Any party contesting this election must commit to funding communities to prepare and adapt the climate impacts already locked in, and recover from disasters when they happen.

Secure, ongoing state government funding for emergency preparedness training, community education and proactive, place-based climate adaptation is essential to save lives, manage the mental health toll of recurrent climate disaster, and significantly reduce the economic cost.

Funding must also protect and regenerate nature. Healthy ecosystems safeguard public health through cleaner air, secure water supply, and cooler local climates - and actively remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Policy Asks

1. Fund the Victorian Community Climate Adaptation Fund (VCCAF) to support communities to implement proactive climate adaptation initiatives appropriate to their local context and build resilience, including multicultural community-led preparedness, outreach and resilience-building initiatives. Match with a program co-designed with First Peoples to Protect Country.
2. Create an independent Victorian Climate Risk Authority to publish statewide climate risk maps and other data, and work with councils and community groups to plan and protect their communities. Ensure risk information is translated into accessible, multilingual and locally trusted public communication. Eg. Disseminating data from the 2022 Marine and Coastal Council report on the Economic Impacts from Sea level rise and storm surge.
3. Scale up Energy Resilience Solutions program.
4. Fund efficiency retrofits & backup batteries for community centres to act as heat refuges and cool spaces with an uninterrupted supply of clean energy during power outages caused by increasingly variable and extreme weather events.
5. Co-develop a resilient homes program to protect homes and communities from future disasters.
6. Make urban areas more resilient to climate impacts like urban heat and flooding by increasing tree coverage and use of permeable surfaces across metropolitan Melbourne.
7. Protect and restore Victoria’s land and ocean ecosystems, including the proper protection of all native forests from all logging.
8. Establish programs to support land and soil management practices that maximise carbon storage and water retention.
9. Strengthen the Climate Action Act (2017)and Local Government Act (2020), to oblige Shire Councils to meet their duty of care to respond and prepare for CC impacts, and address CC risks and mitigation in their council plans and community visioning.