Posted by Sally Newell on April 10, 2020
A once in a decade opportunity to influence Boroondara’s climate policies – email Council now to be included
Local climate action really matters. Councils are at the coal face (whoops) of a massive amount of emissions reduction – and the upside of better policies includes not only masses of local jobs, but better protection for residents.
Wouldn’t you like
- A more walkable city
- Improving green spaces
- Better public transport
- Energy efficiency retrofits – jobs++ and lower bills
- Support for putting on solar and storage, citywide
- Cleaner local power
- Reducing fiscal risk to ratepayer funds (hint: fossil stocks have been the worst performing sector in the last decade (S&P))
It’s time to put our support behind the clean energy transition and climate action.
Your voice matters.
If you want your opinion to be counted in formulating the next climate plan you can, it’s as simple as contacting the Council!
Send a one line email so you will be put on the consultation list – our easy sample email will do the trick.
To boroondara@boroondara.vic.gov.au
Please put me on the list of people who want to be kept informed about the new Climate Action Plan consultation.
Thank you.Kind regards,
My name
The Council requires us to email to be included in the consultation process. No worries, this email will allow you to be included and to be able to put forward your support for a better deal for residents of Boroondara. Your input will influence many decisions that will help accelerate emissions reduction.
Mayor’s invitation to the consultation process
Here is a link to the Mayor’s message in the March Boroondara Bulletin which invites people to express interest to join Boroondara’s current consultation plan, updating the current ‘Our Low Carbon Future Strategy’. Ideally this should be a once in 5 year opportunity, so our participation is important, given that so much has changed in the decade since the previous strategy was formulated way back in 2009.
Progress in three areas
So far, unlike many other Councils, if you look at the Mayor’s statement Boroondara would have seemed to have mostly worked in these areas:
- On the waste stream
- Applying 5 star standards (7-8 stars are where you might start to get written up)
- Joining “with 45 other Victorian councils to participate in a tender to purchase renewable electricity“.
Boroondara could do so much more
Other Councils have gone so much further than us, from significant initiatives on electrifying transport, levering Council’s financial heft to support access to low cost loans for clean energy generation on rooftops, to protecting residents health against heat and the impacts of industrial carbon pollution. In fact many surrounding Councils have declared climate emergencies.
Our money matters
Another issue that needs to be considered is fiscal responsibility, given the very poor performance of conventional energy stocks, our responsibilities in the Paris climate process, and the current global headwinds in fossil sector. Collectively we could join our expertise and community concern over the Council’s position on divestment, acting to protect local financial reserves from acknowledged fiscal risks.
As the Mayor says “It is time for us to have a new conversation together to ensure we have a sustainable environment in Boroondara. A new Climate Action Plan will replace the current strategy.”