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Vote for clean energy in Victoria

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July 14: Victorians gather in front of the Victorian Parliament House
to tell Premier Bracks and state politicians to address the key
environmental issue for the 2006 Victorian election - climate change.

Thousands of Victorians, like these citizens standing in front of the state's Parliament House, helped make climate change an election issue.

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Thanks to your support, climate change became a major issue in the November, 2006 Victoria election. Read on about the successes, and the challenges that still remain ahead.

The good news:

Thanks to community pressure from citizens' group which sprung up all over the state, positive new commitments were made on renewable energy and emissions reduction targets. These include commitments to:

A 10 per cent renewable energy target for 2016;
$50 million for an exciting and innovative solar power station project in north-west Victoria, and $5 million to install solar power in schools and community buildings;
A new Victorian Energy Efficiency Target scheme, plus a target to reduce residential emissions 10 per cent by 2010;
Introduce a law to ensure households and small businesses feeding renewable energy into grid are paid a fair price for power;
A target to reduce greenhouse pollution 60 per cent by 2050, from 2000 levels.

The bad news:

$50 million for a proposed new 400 MW coal-fired power station in Gippsland shows the government does not yet understand that effective greenhouse measures entail an end to our addiction to polluting coal power.
With no interim greenhouse target (i.e., 20 per cent by 2020) little incentive exists to put Victoria on the ugent path to deep emissions cuts now. Furthermore, using the higher greenhouse emissions of 2000 as a baseline, instead of 1990 levels as in the Kyoto Protocol, does the environment no favour.

Download a briefing about the Victoria election results.

Climate change in Victoria

Victoria is a state of beautiful coastlines, rugged mountains and snowfields. It also claims Australia's largest system of inland waterways, including one of the world's longest rivers, the Murray.

Yet permanent water restrictions are already in force. Global warming is expected to radically reduce the extent of snow country. Climate change is the Murray River's greatest long-term threat.

"We [Victorians] emit more greenhouse gases than the likes of Austria, Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland."

Victorian premier, Steve Bracks, 2005

Climate change impacts in Victoria include:

Water shortages: Permanent water restrictions are already in force, and significant reductions in Melbourne's water supply are predicted. Under worst case scenarios, Melbourne city may lose up to 35 per cent of water flowing into dams by 2050, and up to 20 per cent under mid-range scenarios, according to the CSIRO. The city's water resources will be unable to cope under moderate to high climate change scenarios.
Hotter weather: Increases in average temperatures of between 0.7°C and 5.0°C by 2070 according to CSIRO projections.
Worse, more extreme weather: Increased frequency and severity of droughts, floods, bushfires and more extreme weather events that will affect ecosystems including agricultural production in areas such as the Murray Darling Basin.
Less snow: Loss of snow country will bring major social and economic impacts for regional and alpine communities.

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