Friends of the Earth has welcomed the Andrews government's commitment to a Victorian Renewable Energy Target, and has highlighted the need for ambition to attract investment and create jobs while tackling climate change. 

The Andrews government announced a Renewable Energy Target of no less than 20 per cent by 2020 while launching its Renewable Energy Roadmap in Portland today. It has committed to establish targets for 2020 and 2025 and it will seek the community's views on what they should be.

Friends of the Earth welcomes the Andrew government's commitment to reinstating a Victorian Renewable Energy Target. 

The organisation, representing thousands of Victorians, join the call for Prime Minister Abbott to remove roadblocks to state leadership on renewable energy.

"The Abbott government is playing politics over the fate of the Renewable Energy Target (RET). Its actions have seen investment collapse by 90 per cent and 2,500 job losses,” says Leigh Ewbank, Friends of the Earth’s renewable energy spokesperson.

On Saturday November 29, Victoria goes to the polls. And thousands of Victorians across the state will vote for renewable energy.

We have prepared a simple policy scorecard to show where the major parties stand.

The Victorian election will be held on November 29, 2014.

While the main Parties look set to run a ‘bread and butter’ election – focusing on issues like education, health, infrastructure and the economy, there is also a pressing need to make environmental concerns an issue at this election.

FoE is not aligned with any political party. Its mission is to gain protection for the natural environment, and elections present a great opportunity to promote a policy agenda which will help gain these protections.

Victoria used to be one of the leaders in Australia when it came to renewable energy and action on climate change.

This has all been lost over the past four years as the Coalition has gutted almost all aspects of the state’s climate action plans, including the Climate Change Bill and renewable energy target. They put in place the most restrictive anti-wind laws in the world, bringing the development of this industry to a grinding halt.

The Baillieu/ Napthine government has the poorest track record on the protection and restoration of the environment of any government since Victoria’s peak environment groups were founded in the 1950s.

The state’s environment groups, Environment Victoria (founded 1969), The Wilderness Society (founded 1976), Friends of the Earth (founded 1973) and the Victorian National Parks Association (founded 1952) have today said that the past four years of policy under the Napthine and Baillieu Governments represents a wholesale attack on the state’s environment.

MEDIA RELEASE - 7 Nov 2014

Friends of the Earth have launched a report on the views voters in the hotly-contested seat of Macedon hold on the government's anti-wind farm laws just weeks from the November 29 state election. 

The report was launched at the Hepburn Wind, an operating community-owned wind farm in the west of the electorate.   

In mid October, the Victorian Coalition government quietly released it's Energy Plan. There has been no environment policy released as such, which means we have to judge the government's intention on the documents that are in the public realm, and correspondence received from the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change.

The Energy Plan talks up renewable energy, yet there is very little incentive or direction on either renewables or energy efficiency. And it has raised the prospect of a coal export industry.

The Victorian Coalition Government has today released its energy policy document, Victoria’s Energy Statement.

The plan has drawn criticism from renewable energy advocates at Friends of the Earth.

The government’s plan takes a “business as usual” approach that fails Victorians. The plan alludes to greater reliance on coal electricity generation, and continued allocation of public funds to find new uses for our dirty brown coal.

The renewable energy sector has created hundreds of jobs and generated millions of dollars worth of investment in south west Victoria, yet uncertainty clouds the sector’s future. Jobs and peoples' livelihoods hang in the balance. 

What plans do the major political parties have to secure renewable energy jobs and investment in Victoria? Now that’s a good question, especially with a state election fast approaching.

Portland, August 24.