Keynote: ”Victorian climate action”, with Minister Lily D’Ambrosio

Panel:  Lily D’Ambrosio, Simon Holmes à Court, Victoria McKenzie-McHarg

The Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio, Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change gave a presentation on State climate action, opportunities and challenges at our forum on Oct 20th, 2021. This was followed by a panel discussion with the Minister, who was joined by Simon Holmes à Court, Senior Advisor to Climate and Energy College, Melbourne University. Facilitated by Victoria McKenzie-McHarg, Strategic Director at Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA), along with  questions from the audience.

You can watch 3 short Videos here that have been captured and edited under three critical topics on the Lighter Footprints YouTube channel.

 

October 20 Conversations - three 3 minute highlights videos

Short Video #1: State vs Federal: the response of each level of government to climate change:

“What States do is not an excuse to let the Commonwealth off the hook …..none” (Minister D’Ambrosio)

Watch 3 minute highlight ‘Federal Government – not off the hook’ here

Short Video #2: Transport:

“It’s a brilliant move to transfer fleets as quickly as possible to EV’s….50% of new vehicles in Australia are government fleets and commercial fleets….fleets look at the total cost of ownership…………..so by a fleet procuring EV’s, this in turn makes ex-fleet EV’s lower cost,  and therefore makes EV’s accessible to more Victorians” (Simon Homes à Court)

Watch 3 minute highlight video ‘Transport and EV fleets’ here

Short Video #3: Gas:

“What do we do about natural gas? How do we decarbonise the gas sector? Big challenges. But if you’re not dealing with the challenges, then you’re not dealing with climate change”. (Minister D’Ambrosio)

“In the electricity sector we use very little gas, only 2% of Victoria’s electricity actually comes from gas-powered generation”. (Simon Homes à Court)

Watch 3 minute highlight video ‘Getting Off Gas’ here

Full presentation video

Missed out on Minister D’Ambrosio on the 20th? Catch the full recording of her presentation here and the Q & A here.

Check out a 3 minute read on what the State of Victoria is doing on Climate action here.

Legislation and States getting on with action on most sectors, though some issues remain:

As well as being an early mover on ambitious legislated 2030 Targets (45-50% by 2030) , Victoria is working on a Gas Substitution Roadmap, and continues to support solar PV and energy efficiency.

Minister D’Ambrosio explained better progress is being held back by lack of Federal support for climate action. One key area is in international investor confidence, institutional investors  often have just a  national view with respect to Australia’s climate policy framework, and they do not explore at a sub-national (State) level. So the nation misses out on investment because of lack of strong targets, for example Australia’s 2030 target.

The Victorian government climate framework provided by the Climate Change Act 2017 (Vic), means targets and strategy plans apply across all sectors. Across the whole of government.

Key areas such as forests, off-shore gas drilling and transport policy, provoked many questions from our audience.