Victoria

Targets and Goals

• As an important recognition of the current state of climate science, the Victorian Government has stated that - if a satisfactory global agreement to combat climate change post-2012 is reached - it will strongly urge Australias Commonwealth Government to place Australia on a trajectory to achieve a reduction in emissions of at least 80% by 2050.
• Target of 10% of Victorias electricity acquisitions being from renewable sources by 2016.

Top Actions

Energy Efficiency

• An innovative Energy Saver Incentive scheme will support 18 energy efficiency activities in households at no or discounted cost, including replacing inefficient light bulbs, shower roses and window sealing, switching to less greenhouse gas (GHG) intensive fuels and removing old refrigerators. This scheme will help Victoria households reach the goal of reducing GHG emissions by 10% by 2010.
• The Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (VEET) operates by imposing a legal liability on large electricity and gas retailers in Victoria (known as relevant entities) to contribute to energy efficiency measures by acquiring and surrendering Victorian energy efficiency certificates (VEECs). A penalty will be imposed on entities that fail to surrender sufficient VEECs to meet their liability.
• The government is helping Victorians reduce their household energy use through the internationally recognised Black Balloons awareness campaign which highlights measures that reduce household energy use.
• Victoria was the first state in Australia to introduce 5-Star standards for new residential buildings.
• The government introduced minimum energy efficiency standards for commercial buildings in 2006.
• The Right Advice at the Right Place program provides retail staff with materials, resources and training to promote energy efficient products to their customers.
• A range of rebates are offered for energy efficiency improvements, including solar hot water.
• Victoria is rolling out smart electricity meters to all residential and small business electricity consumers to help people to better manage their energy use and reduce their energy bills.
• Large users of energy and water are required to prepare Environment and Resources Efficiency Plans that identify actions to reduce energy and water use and waste generation.
• The Victorian Government has commenced energy performance contracts (EPCs) in 16 key Government-owned office buildings, aiming to achieve a 30% energy reduction across these buildings and is developing a program to make all government buildings more energy efficient (as part of signing the 2008 MOU with the Clinton Climate Initiative).

Renewable Energy

• The Victorian Renewable Energy Target is a market based certificate scheme that sets a target of 10% of Victorias electricity acquisitions being from renewable sources by 2016. The introduction of the expanded Renewable Energy Target at the Commonwealth level will allow VRET to be consolidated within the broader national target, which will significantly increase renewable energy generation to 45,000 GWh or 20% of Australia's total electricity generation by 2020.
• Introducing a feed-in tariff that pays households a fair price for any excess power they generate from wind, solar, hydro and biomass systems, and a premium feed-in tariff for small-scale solar systems.
• Victoria is strongly promoting and attracting new investment in solar technology including an AU$50 million (US$46 million) contribution to secure the construction of one of the most advanced solar power stations in the world and committing to provide up to AU$100 million (US$92 million) to develop a solar power station which can produce about 330GWh of electricity per year or enough power to run 50,000 homes.
• Victoria is setting new regulatory frameworks to guide and attract investment in geothermal energy, wind energy and carbon capture and storage.
• The Victorian Government has a target to increase its use of Greenpower (energy produced by certified renewable energy sources) to 25% by 2010. The Government has also increased the energy efficiency of key buildings by 15% between 1999-2000 and 2006-07.

Clean Transport

• In December 2008, the Government released The Victorian Transport Plan, which provides for major new investment in public transport to manage stronger than expected growth in demand, especially for peak period metropolitan rail services.
• In addition to infrastructure investment, the Government has developed programs such as TravelSmart to encourage Victorians to reduce their reliance on cars and use walking, cycling or public transport for travel to and from workplaces, schools and universities.
• The Government is promoting the use of fuel efficient vehicles through its support of hybrid vehicles for taxis and in the Government car fleet, registration discounts for hybrid vehicles and trials of hybrid public buses.
• In June 2008 the Premier announced that the first hybrid car to be manufactured in Australia would be built at Toyotas Altona plant with the Government committing to purchase 2000 hybrid Camrys over two years.

Sustainable Land Use

• The Responding to Climate Change program is exploring practical methane abatement technologies that can be implemented on farms.
• The Future Farming strategy provides farmers in key industries with new technologies and strategies to adapt their operations in the face of climate uncertainty.
• Victoria supports research into the impacts of climate change on the production of selected agricultural commodities, research into new varieties of drought resistant crops and research into decoding and sequencing the DNA of soil microbes.
• Victoria has taken action to ensure the sustainability of public native forests, resulting in a reduction in harvest levels and larger areas of forest being protected in parks and reserves. The States five regional forest agreements (RFAs) have increased parks and reserves by 960,000 hectares or 36%.

Waste Management

• The Towards Zero Waste Strategy sets the Governments objectives and targets to encourage new processing and recovery technology to generate less waste, increase the amount of recycling and reprocessing, and reduce damage to the environment caused by waste.
• Victorian Advanced Resource Recovery Initiative will facilitate investment in new resource recovery technology to divert organic waste and other usable materials from landfills in Melbourne.
• Victoria is contributing AU$650,000 (US$597,000) through the Sustainable Energy Research and Development Grants Program for a project led by Monash University to research the recycling of waste plastics for the production of diesel fuel.
• Victoria is acting through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist business and industry to improve the lifecycle of products and services.

Promoting Low Carbon Technology

• Victoria is establishing an AU$370 million (US$340 million) Energy Technology Innovation Strategy to support the research, development and demonstration of large scale low emissions energy technologies, such as coal drying, carbon capture and gasification, and solar power.

Fiscal Measures and Market-Based Mechanisms

• Launching an AU$200 million (US$184 million) package of initiatives to drive environmental sustainability: Our Environment, Our Future.

Contact Information

Rebecca Falkingham 

Tel: 03 9651 5094

Key Links

www.climatechange.vic.gov.au