Environment groups today welcomed the Victorian Government’s announcement of improvements to the Energy Saver Incentive scheme and registration rebates for low-emission vehicles, but warned that the upcoming Climate Change White Paper would need larger scale action to slash greenhouse pollution.

The  One  Million  Homes  Alliance  is  calling  on  the  Victorian  Government  to  enable  more  Victorians  to  tackle  climate  change  and  riing  energy  and  water  bills  by  upgrading  the  water  and  energy  efficiency  of  one  million  Victorian  homes. 

Friends of the Earth has welcomed today's release of 'Victoria's Energy Future' by the Minister for Energy Peter Batchelor.

We acknowledge the fact that the Brumby government is taking such a proactive approach to transforming our energy sources towards a low carbon future. The White Paper must fill in the details on exactly how Victoria can move away from its historic reliance on coal, oil and gas to generate energy.

Australians are one of the world's largest per capita consumers of resources and emitters of greenhouse gases. Certainly we need an informed and rational debate about what might constitute a sustainable human population for Australia. But to do so without acknowledging the massive over consumption that we are responsible for is nothing less than hypocrisy.

Peter Batchelor, Minister for Energy and Resources Victoria, is attending the Victorian Coal and Energy Conference on the 30th of March. He'll be there to discuss the business-as-usual approach to climate change—Rudd's CPRS and the construction of a new coal-fired power station in the La Trobe Valley. This is just one of 12 new coal-fired powers stations proposed across Australia.

Next week, the Asilomar International conference on climate intervention technologies will take place in Asilomar, California.

Organised by proponents of the controversial field of climate manipulation or ‘geo-engineering’, the conference will seek to establish a set of voluntary standards for climate intervention research for the international scientific community.

Women’s Health In the North (WHIN), in partnership with Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA), and Friends of the Earth (FoE), will be holding their International Women’s Day event, Climate Change and Women – A Conversation. March 13.

The Transition Decade is a community-wide engagement campaign to achieve the structural changes to the economy and lifestyles that are needed to restore a safe climate.  The campaign aims to help build greater collaboration among groups and individuals who are deeply concerned about the growing climate crisis.  
It was launched at Melbourne Town Hall on Sunday 14th February.

Port Phillip Rising was a walk along the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay, marking the one metre line above the current sea level to highlight the impacts of sea level rise on people, communities and landscapes along the way. We finished the walk in Port Melbourne on November 27. Check here for reports and images from the walk. We are now seeking financial support to continue the walk westwards in early 2010.

The climate change negotiations held in Copenhagen were a disaster for the world's poor. This forum, being held in Belgrave on thursday the 18th of February will address the question of where we could be going on climate campaigning in 2010.