Call on Chris Bowen to fund Local Energy Hubs now! | FoE Australia Nationbuilder Embedded Actions

Call on Chris Bowen to fund Local Energy Hubs now!

Deliver support to regional communities and a faster, fairer renewable energy transition.

Where do you live?

Compose your email

Name

Email

Subject:

Dear Chris Bowen,

I am writing to urge you to commit to funding Local Energy Hubs as an urgent priority for the government in supporting regional communities at the forefront of the energy transition.

Local Energy Hubs are a proposed network of energy outreach centres for regional Australia, designed to provide trusted, local knowledge, education and advice to individuals and communities navigating the shift to renewable energy.

The federal Labor government has shown strong leadership on climate action and taken significant steps to progress Australia’s renewable energy transition, including legislating net-zero targets, strengthening the Capacity Investment Scheme by including requirements to consult First Nations communities, and investing in Community Batteries and Community Solar Banks.

The pace and scale of change required to deliver the shift to renewable energy in line with our climate commitments is significant. However, rural and regional communities are often overwhelmed or frustrated by this change, and unsure of how to grapple with and overcome the challenges that come with it.

Although polling consistently shows that the majority of Australians in regional areas support renewables, including renewable developments in their area, disinformation is rife in our communities, creating division and confusion.

This poses barriers to the renewables rollout, including costly delays or withdrawal from renewables projects. It also presents a serious threat to the government’s mandate on climate, the progress achieved on the energy transition to date - and ultimately the government’s ability to deliver on its target of 82% renewable energy by 2030.

Local Energy Hubs have attracted support from Federal MPs including Dan Repacholi, Sharon Claydon, Alison Byrnes, Stephen Jones, Fiona Phillips and Helen Haines, as well as the Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, Councillors, industry groups, and local leaders from across the country, who all recognise the value that a Local Energy Hub would bring to their communities.

A network of Local Energy Hubs would:
- Provide accessible, trusted, timely and locally relevant information on the energy shift in each region
- Strengthen community participation and social licence for renewable energy development 
- Assist regions to respond to opportunities, challenges, impacts and solutions associated with renewable energy developments
- Ensure the benefits from renewable energy developments are shared and maximise opportunities for their regions
- Deliver cost of living relief by improving the uptake of government incentive programs
- Provide a central point of engagement to coordinate community engagement, reduce consultation fatigue, and deliver improved local benefits
- Uphold First Nations rights, participation and benefits by providing tailored capacity to First Nations organisations and communities
- Support the development of community energy projects

Most people in regional areas support renewables and are looking for help to access the benefits of renewable energy for themselves, their families and their region – but without adequate resourcing to assist them on the journey, and to combat misinformation, their participation and support is at risk.

The information and independent advice that Local Energy Hubs can deliver will help communities to build trust in the transition, and enable them to advocate for and access the real benefits that renewable energy development offers.

Now it’s time for the Government to fund the rollout of trusted information that communities need to be active participants, beneficiaries and champions of the energy transition.

Please stand with regional communities and commit to funding Local Energy Hubs.

How we use the data you enter on this form

All data collected will be treated in accordance with Friends of the Earth's privacy policy >> foe.org.au/privacy

Do Gooder (the advocacy platform powering this online action) processes personal information from you that you enter on this form so that we can provide the functions and related services to you and The Campaigner (the organisation responsible for this online action) for their legitimate purposes, including possibly exporting it to other systems, and to effectively respond to enquiries and communications related to those services.

Specifically when you enter:

Your location data (residential address or postcode) it is used to locate your elected representative, to pre-populate your email signature and to provide The Campaigner with a visualisation of the location of the support for this campaign.
All other data you may enter, including your email address, name, telephone number, commentary and so on is used by The Campaigner to advocate for the campaign’s goals and where required may be sent to the target of the campaign.

The data collected by Do Gooder is also used by us in aggregate form to improve the service and may be held on your behalf outside your country of residence by our third party service providers. These providers are bound by contract to only use personal information on our behalf, in accordance with agreed terms. While the privacy laws of the country in which personal information is stored or transferred may be different from those in your country, we will always have safeguards in place when storing or transferring personal information. We will never sell, rent, loan or in any other way pass your information on to other parties other than to provide this service to you and The Campaigner.

The personal information collected by Do Gooder is held subject to a Data Processing Agreement between Do Gooder and The Campaigner in compliance with the EU's GDPR and Australian law.

Learn more about our privacy policy here

How is my data used?