‘Wait and see’ on climate declaration
NINE hundred councils around the world are following the lead of the City of Darebin’s council in Victoria in declaring a climate emergency, but Dubbo Regional Council is not likely to follow suit.
“I will continue to watch the efforts of Darebin City Council but at this stage I don’t see Dubbo joining its movement,” mayor Ben Shields told Dubbo Photo News.
“This Council is committed to making genuine improvements in sustainability, investing in proposals such as the conversion of our street lights to LED technology that use substantially less electricity than the old technologies. This is a measure that will save our community money but also reduces our energy usage,” Cr Shields said.
“I believe that these kind of policies and commitments are the most effective way of bringing positive change rather than token gestures.”
NINE hundred councils around the world are following the lead of the City of Darebin’s (COD) council in Victoria in declaring a climate emergency, but Dubbo Regional Council is not likely to follow suit.
Nor is it likely to join the Climate Emergency Australia (CEA), a new alliance being formed for councils wanting to take genuine action to stem climate change impacts locally, while advocating the Government declare a climate emergency.
“I will continue to watch the efforts of Darebin City Council but at this stage I don’t see Dubbo joining its movement,” Cr Ben Shields told Dubbo Photo News.
“This Council is committed to making genuine improvements in sustainability, investing in proposals such as the conversion of our street lights to LED technology that use substantially less electricity than the old technologies. This is a measure that will save our community money but also reduces our energy usage,” he said.
Council is also increasing the number of gross pollutant traps being installed across the city.
“These collect rubbish that has been washed into the storm water drains. It stops rubbish, such as plastic bottles and food containers, from being washed into the Macquarie River,” Cr Shields said.
“I believe that these kind of policies and commitments are the most effective way of bringing positive change rather than token gestures,” he said.
Darebin City councillor Trent Mccarthy believes councils are at the front line of climate change impacts.
“To give you a sense of some of the challenges, there’s rural councils experiencing drought all the way through to inner urban councils dealing with a lot of human health issues such as heatwaves, and an environment with a lot of concrete that needs to be cooled down,” he said in a media statement.
China’s National Sword Policy and Malaysia and India’s refusal to accept Australian recyclable waste remains a burden.
At the COAG (Council of Australian Governments) 2019 meeting last week it was agreed a timetable be established to ban the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres, reduce waste, especially plastics, decrease waste going to landfill and maximise the capability of the waste management and recycling sector to collect, recycle, reuse, convert and recover waste.
Dubbo Mayor Ben Shields said: “I am completely committed to Council’s push for resource recovery now that the effects of China’s National Sword policy are being felt in Australia. Council continues to work behind the scenes to be ready to lead the way on projects that make use of recovered resources.”.
The NSW Government remains in the dog box over its $771 million 2019/2020 projected revenue stream from its Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, of which 17.6 per cent is shared among councils to use for education purposes.
In March this year Dubbo Photo News reported DRC Mayor Shields had a vision to expand the Whylandra Waste and Recycling Centre into a recycling plant to manage waste of other councils, simultaneously creating employment and a centre of excellence.
At that time, DRC Solid Waste manager Mark Giebel said: “The technology exists to convert plastic back into diesel, for example, and we’ve got our own huge fleet of trucks.”
A $20 million product stewardship investment fund election promise by the Coalition Government is yet to see the light of day.