CLIMATE CHANGE
Council’s cycling incentives
CYCLISTS would receive “incentives” to ride to work under a draft Hobart City Council sustainability plan that also recommends the introduction of electric tuk tuks.
The action plan details new citywide strategies and measures to reduce Hobart’s energy use and carbon footprint.
Deputy Lord Mayor Helen Burnet said it was time to act on climate change and for council to be a leader in that space.
AN ambitious plan to make Hobart more sustainable and respond to climate change would see cyclists getting paid to ride into the city, edible playgrounds and smart bins that tell the owner when they need to be emptied.
The draft Sustainable Hobart Framework 2020-2025 and draft Sustainable Hobart Action Plan 2020-2025 were presented to the Hobart City Council’s planning committee this week for endorsement ahead of their release for public consultation.
But the plans were deferred by the committee for further consideration at a workshop early next year.
Both documents detail new citywide strategies and actions to reduce Hobart’s energy use and carbon footprint.
The action plan outlines 51 initiatives in six key areas — transport, waste, leadership, resilience, renewables and governance, with short (1-2 years), medium (2-3 years) and long (3-5 years) time frames for each.
Deputy Lord Mayor Helen Burnet said it was time to act on climate change and for council to be a leader in that space.
“The framework and action plan need to respond to that, but we just need to develop that further before it goes out for community consultation,” she said.
“We need to act on this, and I’d hate to think there are people who are sitting at the table who are deliberately delaying our strong response on climate change.”
Alderman Simon Behrakis, who moved the deferral, described many of the action plan items as “extremely ambitious, uncosted and completely outside the realm of council responsibility”.
“This action plan, which was the result of the council’s climate emergency motion months ago, has 51 items to it, each of which warrants individual scrutiny,” he said.
“We were being asked to endorse this document and all the action items en masse. I hope when this document returns to council, it returns with the necessary information for elected members to give proper consideration.”