The politics of local councils and their zero carbon footprints games

Here is a letter (or eletter sent by the local(St Kilda), involved and concerned Helen and Jack Halliday to the Women's Environmental Network on the success of two Councils in meeting their (modest) energy efficiency targets contrasted with our very own non-transparent, down right opaque City of Port Philip, which continues in it's own tradition of treating it's rate payers and inhabitants as mushrooms.

Read on

Dear WEN Colleagues,

I'm attaching an announcement from Moreland Council that they've become the third Australian Council to become carbon neutral.
This certification applies to the Council's own emissions, ie, from street lighting, Council buildings and infrastructure, Council fleet, waste etc, (called corporate emissions) .
At the same time the City of Yarra has similarly been certified as carbon neutral.
These two councils are two of only three in Australia which have achieved this milestone. 

There are a number of important lessons in this for Port Phillip.

Moreland Council has achieved its target of zero Council (corporate) emissions by 2012 .To achieve this goal it created  the Moreland Energy Foundation with initial funding in 2000. Since then both Council and Foundation have worked purposefully towards a program of achieving corporate carbon neutrality. A stepped program of annual reductions was developed some 7 or 8 years ago, accompanied by rigorous annual evaluation of measures taken. The Foundation has also worked with surrounding Councils to cooperatively develop programs for carbon reduction. 

The City of Yarra has achieved its target of zero Council (corporate) emissions by 2012. To assist in achieving its goal it created its own Energy Foundation 2 years ago, with initial annual funding of $350,000. Its model is slightly different, with Council staff working on reducing Council's own emissions while the Foundation is focusssed primarily on communityemissions, (ie, residential, commercial and industrial) with a target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2020, excluding the transport sector. A new program for community engagement has just been initiated by the Foundation.

The CoPP has set a 2020 target date for Council emissions to become carbon neutral. It is difficult to obtain information on Council's progress in reducing emissions for a number of reasons.

1. The publicly available information  provided by the CoPP is too brief  to be useful for comparative purposes, lacks baseline figures and can be contradictory due to assumptions being made but not expressed.. For instance, the Toward Zero report for Year 4 (2010/2011), presented in February this year, showed emissions at 10,360 tonnes (p4). The Quarterly Report on the Council Plan (April - June 2012), presented at the Council meeting of October 23rd this year, records emissions at 12,397 tonnes (p8) - an apparent increase of 2,000 tonnes.
2. The CoPP does not provide accessible information on the amount of Green Power purchased, so it's hard to know whether published figures refer to gross or net emission levels ( ie after Green Power purchases). The most accurate figure for gross emissions suggests they've been at a constant level of about 15,000 tonnes annually until 2010/11, which was the first year in which the Council realised a reduction in emissions without Green Power or other offsets of about 6% (see the Toward Zero report, p8). This figure is consistent with Towards Zero reports since the programs inception.
3. The most effective single action which can be taken by Councils is to expedite the street lighting conversion program to low energy lighting (street lighting accounts for 47% of CoPP's corporate emissions). Whilst this process can be complex and expensive, all Councils with effective programs give priority to this area, with successful Councils such as Yarra having upgraded over 95% of lighting in the municipality. The CoPP does not have readily available information on its public lighting strategy and the limited information available indicates that it is proposing to achieve a  30%" improvement" in public lighting of 30% over 2010 levels by 2020.(p9, Appendix B, Council Inventory and Methodology, Draft Greenhouse Plan).

Again, a number of important lessons here for the CoPP: 

• Effective action requires the dedicated action of an independent Energy Foundation. There are many advantages in having an organization at one step removed from Council, in terms of critical input to Council's operations, the capacity to better engage with the community, and access to more diverse funding sources.The development of a Port Phillip Energy Foundation was advocated by members of the SECRC.
• The CoPPs 2020 timetable needs to be revised and to include year by year benchmarks. Toward Zero was adopted in 2007 with a 13 year target for  zero net emissions. The Greenouse Action Plan under this program is replete with references to 'Action Plans' and "Action Frameworks', but no annual targets have been set, and as can be seen from the reports quoted above, there is little or no transparency about where Council is going in this area from year to year.
• Immediate action should be taken to join a greenhouse alliance (most Melbourne Councils are in active partnership with neighbouring Councils)..The CoPP has recently been invited to join the Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action. The municipalities of Melbourne, Moreland and Yarra are part of the Alliance and there would be advantages in Port Phillip becoming a member, in terms of access to more technical expertise, program design, and hopefully some stimulus to accelerate the pace of program implementation in Port Phillip.

The three Council reports cited are:
Towards Zero: http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/default/ATT_1_-_TZ_Progress_Report_Yr4_Final_130312.pdf
Council Inventory and Methodology, Draft Greenhouse Plan, Appendix B:http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/default/GAP_Appendices_B_v1.pdf
Council Plan 2009-2013 (Year 3), April to June 2012 Quarterly Report:http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/Report_3_-_Attachment_1.pdf