Combatting climate change in Victoria

Our five key steps

The Victorian Government is laying the foundations for effective and long-lasting climate change action. 

In late 2015, 195 countries made a landmark agreement at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Paris to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.

Victoria is playing its part to meet that target. 2016 was the world's hottest year on record but it was a year Victoria took important steps and 2017 will be a new year of climate action.

Here are the five key steps the Victorian Government has taken to act on climate change. 

________ 1 ________

Setting the goalposts

Net zero emissions by 2050 and the first steps to 2020

June 2016: The Victorian Government committed to setting an emission reduction target for Victoria of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

A long term target was recommended by the Independent Review of the Climate Change Act 2010. Ours aligns with internationally agreed scientific evidence, which tells us that to keep global average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees emissions need to decline to net zero levels by the second half of the century. 

This is a change that requires careful timing and management. To ensure this important and ambitious target is reached, we will set five-yearly interim emissions reduction targets, starting from 2021-2025. 

January 2017: We introduced an emissions reduction target for 2020 of a 15-20% reduction from 2005 levels. 

This target will start us on the path to meet our 2050 target. It applies to all emissions in Victoria – across all sectors of the economy.

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________ 2 ________

A new Climate Change Act

Enshrining our climate change action in law

June: The Victorian Government accepted the overwhelming majority of recommendations of the Independent Review of the Climate Change Act 2010.

February 2017:  The Victorian Parliament passed the Climate Change Bill 2016  giving Victoria a new Climate Change Act. This is world-leading legislation that sets a strong foundation to achieve our vision of net zero emissions by 2050.

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________ 3 ________

Victoria pledges to TAKE2

Pledging to act: The TAKE2 program delivers

We cannot wait for others to take action on climate change; the science is very clear that we must start to reduce our emissions and prepare for the future now. 

September 2016: The Victorian Government launched TAKE2, one of the most comprehensive climate change pledging programs in the world. It helps all Victorians participate in Victoria's transition to net zero emissions by 2050 by pledging their own actions to reduce their carbon footprint. 

Already, thousands of Victorian individuals and families, businesses, local government, community sector organisations, and educational organisations have pledged through TAKE2 to reduce their emissions. 

January 2017: The Victorian Government pledges to reduce emissions from the operations of government departments by 30 per cent below 2015 levels by 2020.

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________ 4 ________

Action on energy

Boosting emissions reduction through action on renewable energy and energy efficiency

If Victoria is to benefit from the global transition to a net zero emissions future, we need to invest in and develop services, industries and technologies that are energy efficient and low emissions producing now. 

We have already started. In 2015 we strengthened the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target, and released a Renewable Energy Roadmap and an Energy Efficiency and Productivity Statement.

June 2016: we set ambitious but achievable renewable energy generation targets of 25 per cent by 2020 and 40 per cent by 2025. These targets will deliver up to 5,400 megawatts of renewable energy projects. This would create $9 billion in new capital expenditure, contribute $2.5 billion in direct economic activity and create up to 11,000 Victorian jobs.

To support this, the Victorian Renewable Energy Target Auction Scheme will drive new renewable energy investment and support new large-scale renewable energy projects, like a new $662 million wind farm near Horsham.

Victoria's New Energy Technologies Sector Strategy is driving technology development in Victoria. This includes renewable energy, innovations that make the state's energy system more efficient, and the development of products and services that give consumers greater control over how they satisfy their energy needs.

January 2017: Solar trams.  We committed to tender for 75 megawatts of solar energy projects to be built in Victoria by late 2018, providing the 35 megawatts needed to run Melbourne's entire tram network.

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________ 5 ________ 

Making our vision clear

Climate Change Framework

January 2017: we released Victoria's Climate Change Framework, which sets out the Government's vision for a positive, orderly and just transition to a net zero emissions, climate resilient Victoria by 2050. 

The Framework is a way of showing all Victorians how everything we do from now fits together to create this bright future.

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2017 and beyond

January 2017: Signing the Under 2 MOU: The Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change has signed this important agreement to reduce emissions, connecting Victoria with subnational jurisdictions from around the world. Each signatory commits to limiting emissions to below 80-95 per cent of their 1990 levels by 2050.

So far a total of 165 jurisdictions representing 33 countries and six continents have signed or endorsed the MOU. This represents more than 1.08 billion people and $25.7 trillion in GDP, or one third of the global economy. 

Early 2017: Victoria's Climate Change Adaptation Plan II (2017-2020) Reducing Victoria's emissions will lessen the impact of climate change but a certain amount of change is inevitable and we must prepare ourselves for what climate change will bring. 

Victoria’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan II (2017-2020) is a blueprint to prepare Victoria to meet the challenges of climate change and take action to secure our future. It will be released in early 2017.