Climate action is happening across Australia’s cities and towns supported by the Cities Power Partnership.
This initiative of the Climate Council now covers over half of the Australian population in more than 140 local government areas.
The Partnership involves cities committing to five actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provides them the resources and networks to help achieve these actions.
Cities are getting on with the clean energy transition. They are busy electrifying buses, transforming old landfill sites for new solar farms, and installing solar energy systems on council buildings.
As an example, this week, Wollongong City voted to go 100% renewable using the combined purchasing power of a group of local governments.
Wollongong once relied on coal for jobs and economic wealth. Under the Cities Power Partnership, Wollongong has:
- pledged to Install solar PV on council buildings and use landfill gas methane for electricity generation
- Prepared a policy for installing electric vehicle charging stations on public land
- Updated its cycling strategy to support more people to use active transport
- Set a target of net zero emissions by 2030 for council operations and net zero emissions by 2050 for the City of Wollongong
- Implemented energy efficiency measures across buildings and facilities
- Upgraded many streetlights and sports field lighting to energy-efficient LEDs.
Other councils are also taking ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction initiatives. Eurobodalla and Coffs Harbour councils aim to have 100% renewable energy for their operations by 2030 and Port Macquarie Council is aiming for 2027. Inner West Council (in Sydney) aims to have its operations carbon-neutral by 2023 and Paramatta Council is aiming for 2022.
QPRC is considering entering a power purchasing agreement for renewable energy and has invested in solar PV and energy efficient street lighting but it has made little progress on electrifying the council’s car fleet, adding cycleways not tied to new road projects or advocating for better public transport services.
Nor has QPRC joined the Cities Power Partnership, a step that could provide the support needed to boost climate action.
Greens on QPRC will advocate to join the Partnership because we will make climate action a priority.
Image credit:
By Flicker02 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96035037