After a year like no other where Victorians faced catastrophic bushfires over summer and then stared down the outbreak of Covid-19, how can we build back better as the post-Covid economic recovery gets underway? 

The Victorian government's most recent budget marks a significant shift for renewable energy and climate action in the state, after the Andrews government announced a massive $1.6 billion in funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades, as well as increased for funding public transport projects.  Thge budget will see billions of dollars spent delivering home energy efficiency upgrades, accelerating rooftop solar and batteries, beginning construction on stage one of the Suburban Rail Loop and building new, energy efficient public housing stock. These are all very welcome announcements that will have a positive impact on people’s living standards, and create jobs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These are exactly the kinds of announcements we need to see more of if we’re going to have a chance of acting on the climate crisis.

As momentum builds towards more climate change solutions, Friends of the Earth Melbourne's Yes 2 Renewables collective is putting the spotlight on five of the top clean energy projects for a renewables-led recovery in Victoria.

NSW Border Rivers is the first valley in NSW where floodplain harvesting will be licensed. Follow our table of questions and answers to get your submission in.

Make a submission by midnight, Monday November 30!

Environment group Friends of the Earth welcomes the Andrews government’s announcement of an Energy Innovation Fund today, and say establishing Victoria as a national leader in offshore wind and renewable hydrogen means it can aim high on climate change. 

“This is an important step towards making Victoria the national leader in offshore wind and getting ready to create a long pipeline of thousands of good climate jobs” said Pat Simons, Friends of the Earth’s Yes 2 Renewables Coordinator.

Friends of the Earth have been calling on the government to establish an offshore wind industry plan to ensure the state maximises the benefits of kickstarting the sector, in the leadup to an imminent decision on Emissions Reduction Targets for the state. 

The Andrews government’s 2020-21 budget delivers a clean recovery for Victoria with a record $1.6 billion to accelerate the renewable energy transition and over $5 billion for Public Transport. 

Friends of the Earth say the record investment in climate, energy, and transport initiatives build momentum for the government to set science-based Emissions Reduction Targets—a decision on which is expected by the end of the year:

“The Andrews government budget will deliver a clean recovery for Victoria that will create thousands of jobs while cutting emissions,” said Leigh Ewbank, Friends of the Earth campaigns coordinator.

Fire has played a pivotal role in almost all landscapes across Australia for millions of years. The continent of Australia is a cultural and natural landscape: it has been shaped by First Nations peoples for many hundreds of generations. Colonisation disrupted this long management and now settler society is trying to understand how fire should be used in the landscape to manage it for biodiversity, asset protection, and human safety.

One key tool used to manage fire risk is fuel reduction (or hazard reduction) burning. While often presented as a panacea for fires, it requires a complex and nuanced application to be safe and effective. But many vocal proponents of fuel reduction burning see it as a blunt instrument that can - and should be - applied across all forested landscapes frequently. As we know, the natural world is a complex place. When using a tool with such large implications as fire, we need an equally complex approach rather than a blanket ‘we must burn the bush’ mantra.

These posts will explore some of the issues at play as we, as a society, grapple with how to respond to and manage fire in a time of climate change.

The waters of the Otway Basin from Port Campbell to the SA border are under threat from new offshore gas developments. Five parcels of ocean in state waters (within 5.5 kilometres of shore) were offered by the Andrews government in 2018. The Oil and Gas Acreage Release tender process would allow companies to explore for fossil fuels with a view to starting commercial operations. The process has gained ‘strong interest’ from industry, and an announcement on successful tenders is expected some time after June 30.

The extraction and burning of fossil fuels risks marine life and is bad for climate and tourism.

As a result of this threat of offshore fossil fuel production, a Virtual Paddleout will be held on World Oceans Day, Monday June 8.

Australia suffered through a terrible summer. The 2019–20 bushfires have been described as 'the worst bushfires in our history’. Australia wide, approximately 19.4 million hectares have burnt since 1 July 2019 and at least 33 people dead. It has been estimated that a billion animals died. More than 2,500 homes were destroyed, with more than 300 in Victoria.

In Victoria, more than 1.2 million hectares burnt—making it the largest bushfire since 1939.

The Victorian government is holding an independent investigation into the 2019–20 fire season. It is being led by the Inspector-General for Emergency Management (IGEM), and is looking at Victoria's ‘preparedness for, and response to, the current fire season, as well as review Victoria's recovery effort’.

Submissions have now closed to this process. The IGEM’s 1st report, addressing preparedness for, and response to, the 2019–20 Victorian fire season will be provided to the Victorian Government on 31 July.

We continue to work to see ecologically based fire policy put in place in Victoria.

In 2018, the Andrews Government released five new oil and gas exploration blocks off the Otway and West coast.

The tender process closed in mid February 2019. The government says that it has had 'strong' interest from companies that want to start exploring for gas. 

We expect that an announcement on successful applicants will be made by autumn 2020.

It is essential that make it absolutely clear that the community does not support further fossil fuel development in the state.

Kalbar Resources, a company that has no mining experience, has proposed a mineral sands and rare earths mine at Glenaladale, near Bairnsdale in East Gippsland.

The Fingerboards mine has not yet been approved by the Victorian Government, but after several years of investigation, Kalbar believes the site is suitable for an open cut mine to extract minerals including zircon, rutile and ilmenite — a titanium mineral, and rare earths.

On Wednesday 19th June, concerned East Gippsland residents will be travelling to Melbourne for a peaceful protest on the steps of Parliament. With the Lindenow Valley vegetable growing area only 500m downwind from a proposed mineral sands mine in Glenaladale (near Bairnsdale), organisers of the event say the time has come to accelerate the level of awareness about this mine. They will be calling on Richard Wynne, the Minister for Planning, to rule out the final approvals for the mine.

Kalbar Resources, a company that has no mining experience, has proposed a mineral sands and rare earths mine at Glenaladale, near Bairnsdale in East Gippsland.

The Fingerboards mine has not yet been approved by the Victorian Government, but after several years of investigation, Kalbar believes the site is suitable for an open cut mine to extract minerals including zircon, rutile and ilmenite — a titanium mineral, and rare earths.

Kalbar plans to extract about 200 million tonnes of ore from the site over 20 years.