Noosa Council Climate Change Response Plan
From the Noosa Council website - https://yoursay.noosa.qld.gov.au/climate-change-response-plan
“Noosa Council is now seeking feedback on the draft Climate Change Response Plan, until Friday 30th April. Council staff welcome opportunities to meet with local community organisations and businesses to discuss the draft plan and how they can shape it. If you would like to understand more about the draft plan or meet with the project team to discuss it, please contact us via email at: climatechange@noosa.qld.gov.au
“The plan seeks to set out the context, desired outcomes and actions for addressing climate change in Noosa Shire in partnership with the community, for the next five years.”
It provides overarching strategic direction, specific actions and targets for responding to climate change. The purpose of the plan is to ensure:
Key climate risks are understood and accepted by Council and the community
Roles and responsibilities for addressing climate risks with Council and key sectors of the community are established
Climate risks and emissions reduction are considered and responded to in a holistic and strategic way and embedded in decision making, policy and planning
Opportunities arising from climate change for Council and the community are identified
Collaborative approaches are considered and pursued for reducing emissions and adapting to climate change
Implementation and outcomes of climate action and changing risks are monitored and regularly evaluated.”
ZERO EMISSIONS NOOSA’S SUBMISSION ON THE DRAFT PLAN
“We strongly commend Noosa Council for declaring a Climate Emergency and responding to the grave risks of climate change by developing this draft plan to transition the Noosa Shire community to reach zero emissions by 2026 and to increase our climate resilience.”
ZEN supports the eight chosen themes, they cover the range of actions we need to take to address climate change and adapt to a warmer world. The Climate Change Response Plan should operate as an umbrella strategy, under which all other plans sit, including the Transport Plan, Cycling and Walking Strategy, Asset Management Plans and other relevant plans. This ensures that all future policies and developments in Noosa will occur with climate action and adapting to climate change in mind.
We welcome the opportunity to make a submission to the draft of the Climate Change Response Plan and have addressed both the premise of the plan – a better future – and each of the key themes in our submission. A summary of our analysis is below:
A Better Future
We support the overall aim of the Climate Change Response Plan to create a better future for all of Noosa and our communities. In particular, as a community grass-roots group, we support the aims to support vulnerable populations and ensure all businesses and industries in Noosa have the opportunity to transition to low emissions and reap the rewards of climate action. As the Noosa Council finalises the Climate Change Response Plan, it is critical that the overall aim of bettering Noosa for our current and future residents remains at the forefront of Council action. We also strongly encourage the Council to specifically involve and consider the voice and needs of the Kabi Kabi Indigenous peoples.
Increasing the Ambition of the Eight Themes
“The Noosa Council must go beyond merely counting initiatives or promoting awareness to ensuring real, meaningful change under the eight themes.”
In particular, Noosa Council needs to lead the way with a genuine commitment to climate action throughout the Council’s culture and employee performance. Under ‘Strong Leadership and Governance’ we make a series of recommendations for the Council to imbed climate action in staff KPIs, budgets and to increase resources for staff to effectively act on Noosa’s climate action mandate.
We are concerned that aspects of this plan are not strong enough for Noosa to achieve its goal of net zero by 2026. For the Noosa Shire to remain a leader on climate action, we recommend it amend the Climate Change Response Plan in the following ways:
Summary of Recommendations
Recommendation 1
Provide a framework for Kabi Kabi people to have a substantive input into the Climate Change Response Plan, notably for land management and ecosystem resilience.
Recommendation 2
Outline the impacts of increased temperatures and climate change on species and ecosystem viability on Page 17 of the Climate Change Response Plan.
Recommendation 3
Reframe the metrics proposed under Strong Leadership and Governance, to focus on whether meaningful change has been driven by Noosa Council.
Recommendation 4
Amend the “numbers” based metrics under Strong Leadership and Governance to metrics that track whether Noosa Council has embedded climate change considerations in its activities and policies; and been an effective advocate for climate action in other spheres.
Recommendation 5
Amend Strategic Priority 2.1 to specifically include strata residents in the inclusive transition goal.
Recommendation 6
Include a Strategic Priority under Energy Efficiency focused on promoting renewable energy opportunities and solutions for landlords and tenants.
Recommendation 7
Include a Strategic Priority under Energy Efficiency to address the network hosting capacity limitations for Solar PV in some areas of Noosa.
Recommendation 8
Increase the renewable energy target from 100% to over 100% to provide offsets for transport emissions that are unlikely to fully decarbonise by 2026.
Recommendation 9
Amend Strategic Priority 3.2 under Clean Low Emissions Industries to clarify what business support tools are.
Recommendation 10
Create an additional strategic priority under Clean Low Emissions Industries, where the Council must advocate legislative change for Environmental Upgrade Agreements.
Recommendation 11
Add a further additional priority so that Noosa Council embeds the use of clean low emissions industries’ products and services in Council Procurement Policy and use suppliers located in the Noosa Shire if available.
Recommendation 12
The EcoCheck metric for the Clean Low Emissions Industries theme be amended to reflect a more stringent green certification scheme.
Recommendation 13
The target of EV stations at all major Council facilities by 2026 should be amended to EV stations being installed at all major destinations in Noosa by 2026.
Recommendation 14
Develop a target for Sustainable Transport to gradually reduce diesel car park spaces and increase EV-only spaces, this could be implemented through a parking strategy.
Recommendation 15
The metrics for Sustainable Transport should be amended to include: the number of charging stations for E-bikes as well as EVs, and kilometres of pathway with canopy cover to encourage implementation and integration of Council’s Walking and Cycling Strategy.
Recommendation 16
Amend the strategic priorities for Healthy and Resilient Natural Systems to specifically address water and carbon drawdown by private residences.
Recommendation 17
Include a metric under Healthy and Resilient Natural Systems to specifically track the climate resilience of ecosystems and species in Noosa.
Recommendation 18
Include a strategic priority under Sustainable Agriculture that promotes Indigenous land management.
Recommendation 19
Establish more ambitious targets and metrics under Sustainable Agriculture to ensure meaningful emissions reductions in this sector and measurable increases in climate resilience.
Recommendation 20
Amend the metric under Resilient and Adaptive Communities to include an objective standard for the percentage of respondents that are prepared for climate change risks.
Recommendation 21
Amend the metric for Green Building ratings under Resilient and Adaptive Communities to aim for 6 stars instead of 5 stars.
Recommendation 22
Include an additional metric under Resilient and Adaptive Communities for the percentage of Asset Management Plans that respond to climate change impacts.
Recommendation 23
Bring forward the targets to 2025 or earlier to drive community behaviour change.
Recommendation 24
Amend Strategic Priority 8.3 to specifically address household and business waste, not just community waste; and include a strategic priority to address future waste challenges including battery recycling.
Recommendation 25
Bring forward the timeline for the Zero Waste target of all green waste and food waste being diverted from landfill to 2026 at the latest.
Recommendation 26
Amend the review period for the Plan to an annual review instead of every two years.