CCP AUSTRALIA

ICLEI Oceania has prepared a members brief on the implications of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) on councils’ emissions reduction activities.

The brief outlines the rationale for continued local and regional investment in energy conservation and renewable energy as key strategies in accelerating our transition to low-carbon and more sustainable cities and regions. It also suggests some opportunities for demonstrating additional local leadership.

The brief is available now from the ICLEI Oceania website on the Briefs to Members page.

Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Fundamentals

A Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) Fundamentals presentation has also been prepared for councils, providing a broad overview of emissions trading schemes and the CPRS in general. It is intended as background information only and can be used by council staff for internal briefings.

This presentation is available from the ICLEI Oceania website on the Briefs to Members page.

ICLEI Oceania's Energy and Emissions Information Management project is progressing well, with participants completing a comprehensive needs analysis.

Participating councils from around Australia attended a forum in Melbourne in February to discuss how to manage their energy and emissions data in a way that supports greenhouse mitigation efforts across the whole of council.

This forum was co-hosted by Brimbank City Council and Mitchell Shire Council.

At the forum, councils discussed their current and future needs as well as actions that could be taken to address them.

Councils identified:

• a preference for greenhouse accounting systems to be incorporated into existing corporate IT infrastructure
• operational advantages to incorporating greenhouse and energy accounting into an asset management database
• efficiency benefits to incorporating greenhouse and energy accounting into council's finance system
• a significant role for supportive policy
• a need for changes to information management practices

ICLEI Oceania will provide detailed project learnings in its Best Practice Guide to Energy and Emissions Information Management in Local Government. This guide will be released at the conclusion of this year's project.

For more information about this project, see the Energy and Emissions Information Management project webpages.

ICLEI Oceania is conducting a series of Local Leadership Forums on Climate Change Adaptation to give councils a holistic look at what is involved in taking a leading approach to adaptation – one that enhances the existing risk-management frameworks that councils already use.

The forums, which offer a regional perspective on climate change impact scenarios, aim to facilitate discussion about:

• how climate change impacts will change the way councils operate
• how prepared councils are to make critical decisions when faced with change and uncertainty
• what role the strategic vision plays in providing the guidance and support necessary for council staff to implement adaptation actions.

As part of the forums, participants will be introduced to an adaptive management approach and to selected tools from ICLEI’s Local Government Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit. The forums have been developed to engage a cross-section of council participants, including:

• the councillors and CEOs that set the strategic vision
• the executive managers who allocate resources and assign responsibilities
• the managers and officers that will ultimately implement adaptation actions.

The Victorian forum will be held in Melbourne on 4 March 2009, and will also act as the 2009 Water Campaign™ networking event, providing Greater Melbourne Water Campaign™ councils a valuable opportunity to learn about the broader context of water management and engage with a wide range of sustainability practitioners.

Later Forum dates:
Brisbane, 17 March 2009 – RSVP by 6 March 2009
Sydney, 7 April 2009 – RSVP by 27 March 2009

For more information and to register, please visit the Adaptation Forum webpages.

Just outside Lismore in northern NSW, 50 million worms are busy turning food and greenwaste into compost and liquid natural fertiliser.

CCP State Managers for NSW and Rural Victoria visited the site in November 2008, accompanied by Kim Graham from Lismore City Council.

The facility is the largest, state of the art, fully automated worm farm in the southern hemisphere. At 150 metres long by 50 metres wide it contains over 50 million red and tiger worms. The worms feed on decomposed residues of green waste and food scraps from the Lismore area, turning it into commercial products such as compost and vermicast. These products are provided to local farms and parks to improve soil moisture and nutrition.

Organic waste from these operations is then returned to the worm farm to be processed once again, continuing the cycle. By diverting about 9000 tonnes of organic material from landfill during 2007/08, this initiative has saved almost 10,000 tonnes of CO2e from the earth's atmosphere.

As Far North Queensland Councils fight floods, the Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils (FNQROC) is developing a climate action plan for the region. The councils involved include Cook Shire Council, Cairns Regional Council, Tablelands Regional Council Cassowary Coast Regional Council and Hinchinbrook Shire Council.

These councils have formed the Cities for Climate Change Working Group (CCCWG) and signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), Wet Tropics Management Authority and Terrain NRM Ltd.

These three organisations have committed $10,000 towards the project, with Terrain providing funding for Cook Shire, Cassowary Coast Regional and Hinchinbrook Shire Councils to join CCP.

The Plan will address the twin issues of GHG mitigation and Climate Change Adaptation, and integrate the approaches of CCP and the Reef Guardian Council program.

Reef Guardian Councils stretch from Cooktown to Brisbane and recognise and foster environmental stewardship for the Great Barrier Reef from local government and the general community, and aim to protect against water quality impacts from land-based activities such as urban development, agricultural production, tourism developments and mining.

The climate change program will:

• assist local government in meeting a commitment to mitigate and adapt to climate change
• assist in a regional approach to address climate change and subsequent natural resource issues such as water quality and CO₂ reductions.

Councils will aim to achieve CCP Plus status, as well as being recognised as Reef Guardians. Targets will form the basis of a regional greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategy, with actions providing investment priority for better land management outcomes. To find out more, see the FNQROC website.

Moira Shire Council in rural Victoria, like many CCP councils, set up a cross-departmental Green Team to coordinate and oversee the implementation of Council’s Local Greenhouse Action Plan.

To keep council staff engaged and enthusiastic the Green Team held a recognition event to congratulate individual staff for their efforts in reducing Council’s greenhouse gas emissions. The event also coincided with Council attaining Milestone 4 of the CCP program and Council maintaining its Waste Wise accreditation.

The Green Team recognised the efforts of eight staff who had been nominated by their colleagues for implementing actions across council. Actions ranged from encouraging behavioural change (recycling, switch off programs, printer/photocopier management) through to re-using office furniture, car-pooling, and even switching vehicles from unleaded petrol to LPG.

The Green Team has demonstrated publicly awarding staff for their initiative and achievement is a great way to keep council staff engaged, enthusiastic and motivated to do their bit for Council and the community.

The release of the Climate Change Impacts on Clarence Coastal Areas report is Clarence City Council’s first step in responding to widespread concern about the impacts of climate change along its 191 kilometres of coastline.

This report was derived from a two-year Integrated Assessment (IA) study, which was supported by the Tasmanian State Emergency Service and the Australian Government Department of Climate Change. Council will integrate community consultation results to produce a final IA synthesis report. Once approved, implementation of adaptive management recommendations will begin in the 2009/10 financial year.

This integrated project covering social, economic and scientific issues included:

• detailed modelling of risk to key sites and infrastructure along the Clarence coastline under present day, 50-year and 100-year IPCC predicted climate scenarios
• an assessment of current policy and processes including those associated with emergency management and planning
• a comprehensive survey of community views on climate change risks and what role local government should play in addressing those risks
• a detailed summary of relevant literature from around the world on adaptation particularly in the context of variable coastal environments.

An initiative that began in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour has quickly grown global.

Numerous CCP councils have signed up to take part in Earth Hour on Saturday 28 March 2009. More than more than 375 cities in over 70 countries are participating and will see people turning off their lights for one hour to demonstrate that by working together we can make a difference.

Join the cause and turn your power off from 8.30 to 9.30pm on 28 March. For details, and to be counted, visit the Earth Hour website.

Thinking of switching off public lighting for Earth Hour? Unfortunately it isn't as easy as flicking a switch in most instances, and councils should consider technical feasibility, cost and public risk before taking action.

A council in Western Australia is currently making this assessment and has asked the ICLEI Oceania Sustainable Public Lighting Q&A service for advice. To see the answer that was provided, or ask a question of your own, go to the Q&A page.

A tool to assist councils determine whether they will need to participate in the Australian Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) is expected to be released in the near future by the Department of Climate Change (DCC).

The tool will help councils estimate emissions from landfills under their operational control to assess whether these are likely to trip the participation thresholds for the CPRS.

However, the Australian Government is yet to clarify some of the details for participation in the scheme by the waste sector. The CPRS White Paper, released in December 2008, determined that operating landfills emitting more than 25,000 tonnes CO₂-e would be required to participate in the scheme. In addition, it is proposed that a lower threshold of 10,000 tonnes CO₂-e will apply to landfills that are 'in proximity to another operating landfill facility (within a distance to be determined)'.

DCC is developing the calculator as an assessment tool for reporting under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act 2007. It can also be applied to CPRS waste emissions calculations, as the CPRS will use a similar reporting and emissions calculation framework when it is introduced. (The NGER Act currently does not affect most councils, as it only applies constitutional corporations. The proposed CPRS will not be restricted to constitutional corporations.)

The waste emissions calculator will be available from the DCC website. Further information about the CPRS, including the CPRS White Paper, is also available from the DCC website.