By 2035, it's our aim that the Geelong region will have net zero carbon emissions.
It's an ambitious municipal-wide target that responds to strong community support for climate change action, and is a key feature of our City's Climate Change Response Plan.
The plan sets out 80 actions to collaboratively reduce carbon emissions and increase community resilience to climate change impacts. It follows endorsement of our Sustainability Framework, and was developed in consultation with the community and the Sustainability Advisory Committee.
Our Climate is changing
We're already seeing the impacts of climate change through extreme weather events, prolonged heatwaves, flooding and bushfires.
If emissions continue to increase at the current rate, 2030 daily maximum temperatures are expected to increase by up to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels.*
Other expected changes include rising sea levels, decreasing rainfall in autumn and spring, and a greater number of high fire danger days each year. These changes will also have indirect health impacts, such as poorer air quality, an increasing incidence of infectious disease, risks to food safety and drinking water quality and impacts on mental health. In short, climate change will affect every aspect of our lives.
There is no single answer that will help achieve the scale of change we need over the next decade: it will take a collective response. The Climate Change Response Plan identifies two key areas that must be addressed: reducing emissions and managing climate-related impacts.
Reducing Emissions
In 2019, the Greater Geelong region's community greenhouse gas emissions were estimated to be 3,232,000 tonnes, with electricity accounting for 60 per cent of this total. Other major sources of emissions included transport (21 per cent) and gas (15 per cent).
As an organisation, our operational greenhouse gas emissions amounted to 36,780 tonnes in 2019–20 – around one per cent of total community emissions.
Our street lights, libraries, leisure centres and facilities are now powered with 100 per cent renewable electricity and we have installed solar panels, totalling more than one megawatt, across 27 facilities. We're also rapidly transforming our fleet to zero emission vehicles and recovering 95 per cent of the methane generated from our landfills.
All of this will help us achieve our target of zero emissions from all City operations by 2025.
Other actions promising to reduce emissions in the plan include:
- developing environmentally sustainable design plans for new urban developments, including the Northern and Western Geelong Growth Areas
- actively discouraging gas infrastructure in nominated new developments and supporting renewable alternatives
- working with Deakin University to support the establishment of a regional renewable energy research and development hub
- establishing a climate action strategic partnership fund.
Managing impacts
The other part of our Climate Change Response Plan focuses on adaptation, or actions we can all take to prepare for current and projected climate impacts – from extreme weather to coastal erosion.
Key actions to manage impacts include:
- increasing tree canopy cover in urban areas to 20 per cent by 2030 and 25 per cent by 2045
- developing a policy to ensure all new strategies and plans consider the implications of climate change risk and demonstrate how to manage such issues
- developing coastal adaptation plans for priority coastal hazard sites.
Community efforts
So many passionate locals are already doing incredible work to help address climate change, and the plan recognises these important contributions.
Take, for example, the Ocean Grove Community Association and 100% Clean Bellarine, who teamed up to develop a community solar and battery bulk-buy program, which led to 67 systems being installed.
The South Barwon Community Centre have also been proactive by making simple energy-saving changes, like swapping the 24-hour hot water boiler to on-demand urns and kettles, installing LED lighting and reconfiguring their space so that the most used rooms are in the warmer areas of the building.
While much of what shapes climate change in the region is determined by global and national forces, there is still a lot we can all influence and control. As individuals, we can change our patterns of consumption and lifestyles. As groups and organisations, we can increase renewable energy use and maximise energy efficiency. Every effort counts.
