After a community campaign that lasted two-and-a-half years, the Andrews government has committed to Victorian Renewable Energy Targets of 25 percent by 2020 and 40 percent by 2025.
In the year 2050, I’ll be 65 years old. Amazingly the wind farms built and solar panels installed to meet the VRET will winding up their operating life. I’ll be able to look over them and tell my family and friends about the campaign that put Victoria on a pathway to 100 percent renewables.
It’s fair to say that over the last four years, Friends of the Earth’s Yes 2 Renewables campaign has transformed energy politics and policy in Victoria.
In 2012-13, we went head-to-head with the anti-wind farm lobby on King Island, Central Victoria, and Canberra. And in 2o14, we secured the repeal of the Baillieu government’s anti-wind farm laws.
These modest campaign victories set us up for a more ambitious task: To make Victoria a safe-haven for renewables by reinstating a Victorian Renewable Energy Target.