The Andrews Labor Government is delivering action on climate change by helping Victorian organisations lead the development of new ideas to help Victoria reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.

Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio today announced 24 successful recipients of $4.3 million in Climate Change Innovation grants.

The grants program is designed to foster action, innovation and collaboration between businesses, industry, researchers and government and drive greater investment.

The program recognises Victoria’s significant industry capabilities, including education and professional services, that make us well placed to tackle climate change.

Grant recipients include:

• Precision Agriculture Pty Ltd, for their project, which will demonstrate on dairy farms how variable rate application of fertiliser can reduce the amount of free nitrogen released into the atmosphere
• Deakin University for the Fridge Off Grid project, which will show a reduction in expenses, power consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by removing refrigerators from the grid through development of a portable solar panel & power storage units
• Wodonga City Council, for their community solar project, which is implementing a working example of a community renewable energy model not seen before, that provides benefits to the entire community, including helping adaptation for low income households.

All projects hope to have a broader application across the state in future.

The grants program is part of the Labor Government’s action on climate, which includes delivering strong Climate Change Framework and significant investment in renewable energy, and are part of the Government’s $5.6 million investment in the Virtual Centre for Climate Change Innovation Program.

Victoria is taking action on climate change, and delivering VRET targets of 25 per cent by 2020 and 40 per cent by 2025.

The Virtual Centre for Climate Change Innovation will run a workshop in April for grant recipients.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio

“We are delivering real action on climate change by helping companies across Victoria implement new ideas to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

“This is about helping some of Victoria’s best and brightest minds achieve even greater things in combatting climate change.”