Gold Coast City, Australia Cities for Climate Protection Campaign
Type: Policy
Status: Adopted
Source File: http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/t_standard.aspx?pid=6979
Description:
Gold Coast City Council has an important role to play in the achievement of greenhouse gas reduction. Council is currently investigating ways to reduce our energy usage and utilise renewable energy where practical.
As participants in the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign, the Gold Coast is making its contribution to this global issue of climate protection.
The Gold Coast 2010 Cities for Climate Protection Program for greenhouse gas reductions builds on existing Council and community initiatives and strives to encourage reductions in Council emissions of 20 per cent per resident, and of 10 per cent per resident for community emissions by the year 2010.
Council is taking a number of actions to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions through its own operations. These include:
- 1. Ethanol use in all Council vehicles
- 2. Methane capture and electricity production from land fill sites
- 3. Renewable energy generation from micro hydro water turbines
- 4. Regular energy audits of facilities
- 5. LPG and hybrid vehicles in fleet
- 6. Monitoring of water network to improve efficiency
In the light of deepening local, national and international concern, Gold Coast City Council is committing to a new long-term target of carbon neutrality by 2020 for Council emissions. This means that by 2020 the greenhouse gas emissions from the delivery of Gold Coast City Council normal business would be effectively zero.
This will be achieved through a sound approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a strong focus on:
- avoiding emissions by using renewable energy and minimising energy use by redesigning our practices;
- increasing our use of energy efficient products, re-using waste heat or cogeneration; and
- offsetting greenhouse gas emissions that can’t be reduced through carbon sinks and carbon trading.
In 2008 Council will develop a whole of city strategy to address climate change for the Gold Coast in the context of the Bold Future initiative.
The strategy will revisit Council’s current climate change actions and cover mitigation (reduction) of greenhouse gas emissions now to help prevent further climate change, and adaptation to anticipated changes due to past emissions including changes to sea-level, temperature and rainfall.