City’s seeking clear air

Geelong council wants explicit climate targets

GEELONG council has called for the city to develop public targets to hold it accountable to its sustainability commitments, as activists question a lack of a clear timeline to achieve those goals.

Councillors on Tuesday endorsed an updated sustainability framework and sustainability action plan and want a draft sustainability policy for community feedback.

Mayor Stephanie Asher also called for reports on creating terms of reference for a new sustainability consultative committee to advise and support the implementation of the action plan, adding public targets to the city’s reporting program — including a carbon reduction target — and the creation of a public climate change statement.

“The people who gave us feedback (on the sustainability framework and action plan) said they wanted us to set ambitious targets; and I think we need to benchmark ourselves against the best,” Cr Asher said.

“The climate change statement will sum up what we plan to do about climate change in one succinct statement, which will be part of the climate change response plan already under way.

“And the formation of the sustainability consultative committee will give us a way to continue to consult with the many passionate people who have had input into these documents so far, as well as other experts in sustainability.”

Geelong climate activists welcomed aspects of the city’s new sustainability framework, action plan and policy, but continued to hold some reservations around their effectiveness.

Sanja Van Huet, who was active in a push for the city to declare a climate emergency, said the city’s sustainability work had “skirted the edges in a lot of ways”.

“It has watered down the importance of the environmental side of it,” Ms Van Huet said. “It hasn’t completely ignored it; it’s actually provided new initiatives and increased focus on certain aspects, but it still hasn’t addressed some of the really big issues in the environment.

“There’s no really set timeline goals.”

Mik Aidt, who hosts the Sustainable Hour on Pulse radio station, wrote on his Centre for Climate Safety website that there were “many good features of the plan”, but labelled a lack of detail and apparent low budget as “concerning”.

He said the most urgent problem was ensuring that community leaders could not be allowed to continue to be asleep at the wheel on climate action.