for ucg in aus victoria is the place to be!

http://www.environmentalmanagementnews.net/storyview.asp?storyid=1138225§ionsource=s0

Victoria distances itself from brown coal and CO2


Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Victorian Premier John Brumby has unveiled an ambitious plan to tackle climate change, pledging to cut the state's greenhouse emissions below 2000 levels by 20% within the next decade through a number of initiatives. The commitment is in sharp contrast to the federal climate debate, where the major parties face heavy criticism for delaying measures that could reach the bipartisan target of a 5% cut in emissions.



Victorian Premier John Brumby.

A key part of the Taking Action for Victorias Future, the Victorian Climate Change White Paper The Action Plan, would see the Victorian Government impose emissions limits for new coal-fired stations such that they would in effect ban them unless they came with clean coal storage.

It would also give the EPA increased powers to regulate emissions from coal-fired stations if agreement cannot be reached on a phased shutdown.

Brumby said the state target would require a transformation in the way it generated and used electricity, more than 90% of which comes from high-emissions brown coal.

"Our commitment is that by 2014 Victoria will have made significant progress on reductions, and will be in a position to make even greater changes to achieve the 20% goal by 2020," Brumby said.

The white paper includes existing commitments to kick-start a large-scale solar power industry to generate 5% of the state's electricity by 2020, and double an existing energy efficiency target.

Environment Victoria said the 20% target showed strong leadership. CEO Kelly O'Shanassy said "it is head and shoulders above any other state or federal government".

The white paper, however, was criticised by the Australian Industry Group's Victorian director, Tim Piper, who said it could place high costs on businesses and detract from investment and job creation.

As reported earlier this month in Environmental Management News, the white paper also includes a plan to close a quarter of Australia's largest power station, the Hazelwood plant in the Latrobe Valley, by 2014.

The eventual partial closedown of Hazelwood will depend on Federal Government action, initially through money to compensate Hazelwood's owner, International Power, and eventually an emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Brumby said the state had held initial discussions with International Power, but added the closure of Hazelwood would have to include a partnership with the Federal Government.

Greens leader Bob Brown said Victoria had gone ahead of Canberra on climate change, and called on Brumby to back a Greens plan for a carbon tax.

''Hazelwood would not compete if it had to pay a fair price for the pollution it puts into the atmosphere, but renewable energy would prosper,'' Brown said.

Former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull said last night on the ABC that only the Coalition had the capacity to fund Brumby's Hazelwood initiative, a reference to its $10.5 billion direct action plan, which includes incentives for old power stations to cut emissions.

Major announcements in the white paper include:

An Australian-first voluntary registration renewal scheme that allows drivers to offset their vehicles greenhouse emissions. The scheme will enable the public and businesses to offset emissions through tree planting, changing to more environmentally friendly farming practices and soil carbon sequestration;
A $160 million building upgrade program that commits to increasing the existing energy efficiency target across government buildings from 20% to 25% by 2018. The program builds on the Greener Government Buildings program;
Doubling the Energy Saver Incentive will drive emission reductions in households and businesses of at least 5.4 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year over the next 3 years;
The establishment of between five and 10 large solar plants across regional Victoria. As a result, Victoria will have up to 25% of its power coming from renewable energy by 2020;
A gross feed-in tariff to assist in the take up of solar power by paying large-scale facilities extra money for feeding the renewable power they generate back into the grid above what they would normally get on the energy market. The interim target is to generate 500GW of solar power by 2014; and
Expanding the $105 million Climate Communities program to deliver a broader range of climate change initiatives and include a statewide behaviour change program which will build on the Black Balloons campaign.