The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) has sought stakeholder feedback on the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program, a Victorian Government energy savings and emissions reduction program which promotes energy efficiency upgrades in residential, business and industrial premises.
In 2023, Climateworks published least-cost emissions reduction pathways for Australia, including a Paris-aligned pathway for limiting warming to 1.5°C.
Climateworks’ Renovation Pathways program has demonstrated the economic benefits and emissions reduction impacts of thermal upgrade packages and switching gas appliances to electric equivalents.
Based on this work, Climateworks recommends that DEECA consider the following as it develops 2026 and 2027 targets for the VEU program:
- Maintain targets of at least 7 million Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates (VEECs) in 2026 and 2027, consistent with 2024 and 2025 targets, under both the ‘main regulatory scenario’ and ‘alternative regulatory scenario’ .
- Deliver fair and equitable support for priority households, particularly low-income households and renters, to enable high-ambition VEU targets while avoiding the negative aspects of the ‘death spirals’ that could occur as fewer customers utilise gas network infrastructure.
- Provide rebates and discounts for a broader range of thermal efficiency, distributed energy resources (DER) and demand management technologies to achieve progressively more ambitious VEU targets.
More detail on these recommendations can be found in the submission [PDF 0.5mb.