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AAP
AAP
Politics
Callum Godde

Vic coalition to legislate emissions goal

The Victorian coalition is promising to legislate an emissions reduction target of 50 per cent by 2030, if it wins the November state election.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy on Sunday unveiled the policy, which matches Victorian Labor's target and is higher than the 43 per cent goal set by the federal government.

The Victorian government has already committed to slashing emissions 50 per cent by the end of the decade, but is yet to legislate the interim target.

Under the coalition's plan to reach the 2030 target, it has vowed to establish a $1 billion hydrogen strategy, upgrade transmission infrastructure in western Victoria and set up a taskforce to "fix" the state's energy grid.

It will also legislate a local gas guarantee for new supply, a policy first announced in 2017, within the first six months of taking office.

The plan provides certainty on the state's energy future and shows the coalition's commitment to climate change action, Mr Guy says.

"Our country is clearly moving towards emissions reduction targets," he told reporters.

"We believe that it is time to legislate these targets so that the next phase of the our discussion as a state is around implementation, so that the politics is out of this debate once and for all.

"Then we can move on."

Mr Guy insists the emissions policy received the blessing of the coalition partyroom, despite Liberal backbencher Bev McArthur partly blaming "false targets" for Australia's recent energy crisis in an op-ed last month.

"There are 14,000 members of the Liberal Party - we're not a homogeneous beast on everything and I'm sure Labor isn't either," he said.

It comes the day after the coalition announced it would offer rebates of up to $1400 for solar panels and $3000 for a home batteries, expanding on Victorian Labor's signature Solar Homes program.

Premier Daniel Andrews would not be drawn on whether his government also intends to legislate the 2030 target and accused the opposition of a policy backflip.

"Apparently people who were opposed to renewable energy and didn't believe in climate change a few weeks ago, suddenly (do). Nothing like a convert," he said.

In March, Mr Guy flagged the coalition would pursue Labor's 2030 and 2050 emissions targets after in 2018 vowing to scrap them in favour of a national approach if they won office.

But the Andrews government was comfortably returned for a second term, with Mr Guy stepping down as leader and the opposition's policy left in limbo.

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