Funding projects to help combat climate change

Victorian councils, businesses, schools and service groups can apply for what the State Government describes as “substantial grants” for projects designed to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Grants of up to $50,000 will be available under a $23 million Climate Communities Program which will fund projects of various sizes with two rounds of grants each year.

The projects will need to meet one or more of the key objectives:
- community abatement: involving reductions to greenhouse gas in addition to the CPRS cap;
- community resilience: programs that are implemented within the CPRS cap; and
- community innovation: programs that involve trialling new ideas for sustainable living in the energy, waste and transport sectors, and promoting their adoption in other communities.

The first round of applications will be opened in 2010 – further information will be available from Sustainability Victoria and grants will be supplied through the agency’s Sustainability Fund.

Victoria’s Premier, John Brumby, says much of the debate on action against climate change centres on the negative impact humans have had on climate. Mr Brumby says, however, his government wants to shift the focus onto the positive impact humans can have on climate.