South West Coast candidates outline plans to address climate and environment issues at forum

He made his opinion clear at The Standard's forum held on Wednesday night.

"If we're going to transition to a cleaner climate, we've got to go down the nuclear stage," Mr Doukas said.

"We don't have to have the great big nuclear power stations any more - there are other ways of doing it."

Mr Doukas was responding to a question about how he would address the climate and environment issues if elected.

He also said investment should be made in ensuring farmers had access to three-phase power between Port Fairy and Portland.

"West of Port Fairy, you try and get three-phase power - it's almost impossible," Mr Doukas said.

"Those farmers out there have got to buy large diesel fired generators to keep their dairy farms going."

Independent candidate James Purcell said he believed the state government should build a gas-fired power station in Western Victoria.

"I certainly support the idea to move to renewables, but my calculations - and I'm no energy expert - are that it's going to take longer than to 2030," Mr Purcell said.

"I think we do need to use conventional gas - certainly not fracking - but conventional gas.

"The gas study that was done by the state government shows that the great percentage of that gas is in Western Victoria and I think it's a good opportunity to have a gas-fired power station in Western Victoria."

Greens candidate Thomas Campbell said the government needed to commit to investing more in renewable energy.

"I'm also concerned about the potential of opening up a gas field right near the Twelve Apostles," Mr Campbell said.

"It's unncessary, it's too expensive - we need to be embracing renewables going forward."

Investing in research to improve the capability and efficiency of renewable energy was a suggestion by independent candidate Michael McCluskey, while Animal Justice Party candidate Jacinta Anderson said all Victorian residents needed to work together to come up with a solution.

"Action, action, action - we need action," Ms Anderson said.

She said people should make a change to electric cars.

"We need to plant trees because they store carbon ... and we also need to install electric solar panels and things like that," Ms Anderson said.

Labor Party candidate Kylie Gaston said the party was investing in renewable energy and would continue to do so.

"I think it's a really big game changer that the Labor Party is proposing to bring in State Electricity Commission of old - everybody knows that when Kennett privatised it, it's caused the price of electricity to go up incredibly."

Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell said there was legislation in place for Victoria to reduce emissions by 2050.

"What we have also is a target in Victoria to actually achieve that by 2030," Ms Britnell said.

"The Liberal Party have committed to legislate that target. The Labor Party have it as a target - we will be legislating that and the reason we're doing that is because we're very confident we can get to that goal by 2030."

Independent candidate Carol Altmann said she would push for a zero emissions target by 2035 if elected.

"If we don't do this, if we don't get going, we're actually going to get left behind," Ms Altmann said.

"The world is moving in this way and if we continue to keep hanging on to fossil fuels, we will be penalised.

"Our exports will be penalised because they will be looking to see how green we are."

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