Residents are encouraged to sign up before 10 June to have solar panel systems installed before 30 June to maximise rebates.

The value of Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) is reduced from 1 July which currently translates to hundreds of dollars off the price of household solar systems.

The city councils of Brimbank, Maribyrnong and Moonee Valley are promoting an offer for discounted solar panel systems through their Green Home Makeover Program.

The program is designed to help residents reduce their household bills and live greener.

The EnviroShop has been selected as the program provider via a competitive registration of interest process to offer residents quality advice, supply and installation of discounted energy and water saving products.

Brimbank residents can contact the EnviroShop directly on 1300 30 58 33 or visit www.greenhomemakeover.com.au to take advantage of discounted solar panel systems under the Councils’ Green Home Makeover Program.

World Environment Day: Think Outside the City Block!

When:  1pm, Tuesday 5 June 2012

Where:  Melbourne CBD- Corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets

We’re holding a special event this World Environment Day.  It’s going to be big – 1 hectare in fact.

On 5 June hundreds of people will join hands around one of Melbourne CBD’s 1 hectare city blocks as a representation of the threat to our forests, oceans and wild places from logging, mining and unsustainable fishing.

What’s in a city block?

Every day, 10 city blocks of Victoria’s forests are logged, mostly to make cheap products like Reflex paperAn area the size of 3,500 city blocks of the Kimberley’s stunning coastline is currently at risk of being converted into the largest oil and gas processing hub in the southern hemisphere
And in a once in a lifetime opportunity, the equivalent to 108,000,000 city blocks of our marine territory is up for protection in 2012!

Come and join hands with hundreds of Victorians on the United Nations’ 12th World Environment Day and show your support for Australia’s world renowned natural environment!

Help us make this the greatest World Environment Day ever by sharing this link on Facebook and tweeting about the event: “Celebrate #WorldEnvironmentDay Melbourne CBD - corner of Bourke & Elizabeth 1pm 5 June http://alturl.com/rc4y7 @WildernessVic”

For more information and to RSVP contact vic.community.campaigner@wilderness.org.au.

Can Australia's carbon policies help avoid a future climate catastrophe?

The world’s best climate science from NASA (Prof James Hansen), the Potsdam Institute (Prof John Schellnhuber- chief climate adviser to the European Community), the Tyndall Climate Research Centre (Prof Kevin Anderson) is now telling us desperately urgent action needs to be taken within 5 years to avert a global catastrophe taking place as early as 2040. If the Federal Government along with other Governments of leading polluting nations don’t act quickly enough, billions of people lives will be put at risk.

Liberal, Labor and Green politicians and leading commentators and public figures will discuss Australia's climate change strategy at a public forum titled 'Beyond the Carbon Price' at NSW Parliament House, 6 - 8pm on April 27, 2012.

High profile speakers John Hewson (former leader of the Federal Liberal Party), Jenny McAllister (National ALP President) and Greens Senator Christine Milne will be joined by Ged Kearney (ACTU), and Richard Denniss (Australia Institute) at the opening night forum of the 2012 Climate Action Summit.

This to be followed by a series of talks/discussions on Saturday and Sunday at University of Western Sydney, Parramatta campus organised by the National Community Climate Network, a network of over 100 climate action groups across Australia, the three day Climate Action Summit will take place over the weekend with workshops and sessions by local campaigners, climate scientists and academics.

It will have an amazing line up of speakers on everything from the campaign to stop coal seam gas, strengthening climate action groups influence in the community, the campaign to reach 100% renewable energy, developing green unions and green jobs, and much more. This will be a great opportunity for those concerned about climate change to meet with and learn from scientists, MPs and successful climate campaigners, including Matt Wright, Lee Rhiannon, Lesley Hughes, Peter Newman, Philip Sutton, Mark Diesendorf, Lindsay Soutar and more.

Rod Quantock, the hilarious comedian will be entertaining us on Saturday night, April 28, at the summit dinner with his wonderful take on climate politics. Opening night Forum

Summit
Australia’s Climate Action Summit on Saturday and Sunday is being held at the University of Western Sydney, Parramatta campus starting at 9am on April 28 and April 29.

For further details visit www.climatesummit.org.au

Professor David Karoly presents:

Climate change science and impacts on Australia: Where are we now?

University of Melbourne - Burnley Campus
Burnley Hall - Main Building
Tuesday, May 1st - 4.30 pm

This presentation provides a great opportunity to get up to date with current climate change knowledge, from a leading expert in the field. The presentation will be followed by question time, drinks and nibbles.

Please RSVP to andrsm@unimelb.edu.au

Biographical Information:

Professor David Karoly is an internationally recognised expert in climate change and climate variability, including greenhouse climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and interannual climate variations due to El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

He was heavily involved in preparation of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in 2007, in several different roles. Professor Karoly was Chair of the Premier of Victoria's Climate Change Reference Group during 2008 and 2009. He is a member of the Science Advisory Panel of the Australian Climate Commission and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. His international activities include as a member of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme.

Professor Karoly joined the School of Earth Sciences in May 2007 as a Federation Fellow funded by the Australian government. From 2003, he held the Williams Chair in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. During 2001-2002, he was Professor of Meteorology and Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University. From August 1995, he was Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology at Monash University until it closed in June 2000.

Professor Karoly is an ARC Federation Fellow and Professor of Meteorology in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is also leader of the Climate Change theme in the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne.

Degrees: BSc (Hons), Monash, 1976; PhD, Reading (UK), 1980.

Yesterday Quit Coal and Friends of the Earth joined with 34 other groups from across Victoria to call for a moratorium on new coal and coal seam gas (CSG) operations in the state.  (The text of exactly what we've called for is at the bottom of this email).

There was also excellent news that the Victorian State Labor Opposition has joined our call for a Coal Seam Gas moratorium - though sadly this does not include all new coal projects. 

As you will have heard, contrary to common sense and climate science, the Baillieu government is working on a long-term strategy to try to head off community objections to its plans to develop Victoria’s brown coal reserves.

Showing the tremendous community support for a moratorium on coal will create the political pressure to make the various parties institute or commit to instituting it before the next state election.

With recent media revelations and today's announcement by Labor, we're at a critical point to shore up Labor's position and put pressure on Government MPs to state their position and break ranks (Liberal MP Ken White did this already).

Take action - Send a strong message that we do not want new coal and CSG operations in our state.

1/ Tell your MP you expect them to support the moratorium.  To find who they are, go to: http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/assembly and then type your postcode into the box in the top right corner.

2/ Send a copy to the Premier, Energy Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water.

Hon Ted Baillieu, Premier of Victoria. ted.baillieu@parliament.vic.gov.au 

Hon Michael O’Brien, Minister for Energy and Resources. michael.o'brien@parliament.vic.gov.au Twitter: @michaelobrienmp 

Hon Peter Walsh, Deputy Leader of The Nationals, Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Minister for Water. peter.walsh@parliament.vic.gov.au 

Remember to add your contact details.

3/ Comment on today's Weekly Times article about the moratorium, supporting the call - the pollies will see it through their media monitors!

4/ Please send a quick email or tweet to the ALP saying you support their call for a moratorium on CSG and Tight Gas.

Twitter: @VIC_ALP 

Daniel Andrews, Leader of the Labor Party, daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au  twitter: @DanielAndrewsMP 

Lily D'Ambrosio, Shadow Minister for Energy, lily.d'ambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au  twitter: @LilyDAmbrosioMP

John Lenders, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, john.lenders@parliament.vic.gov.au 

5/ Sign and/or forward the petition calling for a moratorium:

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-dangerous-coal-seam-gas-mining-in-victoria

Really fired up?

6/ Write a letter to your local papers about the threat posed to Victoria’s food production and climate by the fossil fuel industry.

Please write to the Weekly Times, the key regional paper in Victoria: http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/forms/letter-to-the-editor.html 

Also write letters to the daily papers: 

The Age: letters@theage.com.au

Herald Sun: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/letter

Quit Coal!