Time for a practical, sustained and community-wide [24.07.2008]
Melburnians – as individuals, businesses and as a community – must work together to take practical actions and strive for sustainability in the face of climate change, according to a plan released today by the Committee for Melbourne. “We as Melburnians must be proactive and act now to adapt to the ‘locked in’ effects of climate change,” Committee CEO, Ms. Sally Capp said.
Released today and the result of 12 months’ work by 80 Melbourne organisations, the Committee for Melbourne climate change FutureMap report is a blueprint for adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, which include rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events. The first Melbourne-specific and ‘plain English’ report on the impacts of climate change also recommends practical actions for mitigating our greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from stationary energy and transport, by engaging all levels of the community.
“It would be too easy to sit on our hands until an Emissions Trading Scheme ‘forces’ us to act. If we wait, we risk more than just losing an opportunity to use our vast innovative and technological resources to establish a leadership position in the way we deal with climate change. We risk our most precious commodities – our environment and our city’s liveability and prosperity,” Ms. Capp said. “Today’s date - 24/7 - is symbolic of the sustained joint effort - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - required to address this issue and protect our liveability and prosperity,” she said.
The Climate Change Taskforce was convened to investigate the impacts and opportunities from climate change for Melbourne. Committee Members will be invited to play a key leadership role in showing the changes business can make to seize and deliver the opportunities that are presented by a changing climate. The Committee is calling on Melbourne organisations, including its broad 170- strong membership, to take action to make ‘early and deep’ cuts in the amount of harmful emissions put out by Melbourne and Victoria.
The Committee will hold workshops in the coming months about the benefits of retrofitting buildings, ‘greening’ procurement processes, and changing travel behaviour to adapt to climate change, reduce emissions and improve the organisation’s bottom line. The Committee will also host a roundtable to discuss measures to help low income renters adapt to climate change impacts.
In addition to taking concrete actions, the Committee will share its recommendations with Government because it believes climate change requires Melbourne and Victoria to plan, on a community-wide scale, for reserves, redundancy and resilience.
Among the climate change sensitive policies set out by the Committee, the FutureMap advocates: • All new and proposed amendments to Government legislation be subject to a Climate Change Impacts Assessment, including measures to accommodate resilience to the effects of climate change; • Planning regulations to allow ‘as of right’ 6-storey/30m height development along specific high frequency public transport routes, subject to local ‘green space’ and heritage considerations; and • Melbourne utilise an ‘Asia Pacific Institute for Sustainable Cities’ to facilitate the co-ordinated uptake of existing funding schemes and business investment across Victoria to encourage reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The report is focussed, rather than all-encompassing, and identifies Melbourne opportunities which are within the Committee’s realm of expertise and where it has the capacity to make a difference. The areas it covers are: buildings; business procurement; urban resilience; transport; low emission energy; and social equity. The Committee believes Melbourne must show leadership and drive the market for sustainable products and services by greening our procurement processes. It also calls on Melbourne’s building owners to reduce their energy and water use – and operational costs – through retrofitting.
An increase in investment in public transport infrastructure, and a national vehicle emissions target, requiring manufacturers to align with the lower, best practice standards of the European Union across their model ranges by 2015, are also advocated.
In addition to significantly increasing our investment in research and development into all renewable energy technologies, the FutureMap also proposes an independent study to determine, once and for all, if low emission coal is commercially feasible and if so, within what timeline and at what cost. The Committee’s Climate Change Taskforce is co-chaired by the Royal Botanic Gardens’ Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Philip Moors and Origin Energy’s Director for Victoria and Tasmania and an Advisor to the Garnaut Climate Change Review, Mr. Tony Wood.