ALGA National General Assembly: Emissions Targets, Partnerships, & Progress
The message is clear, local government leaders across Australia want action on climate change.
“We are in the race of our lives and we need everybody to be taking action from national governments, local governments, businesses and residents. It has to happen everywhere and as fast as we can,” stated Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds of the City of Hobart during the 2022 Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly held in Canberra on 18 to 22 June.
During the Assembly, ICLEI Oceania - Local Governments for Sustainability and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and with our partners Better Futures Australia and Cities Power Partnership set out to engage the Federal Government to accelerate climate action.
Updated research shows that if the emission reductions planned by just 61 of Australia’s 537 local governments were met, 91,200 kt CO2 emissions would be reduced, this would bring Australia over half of the way to meeting a 43% reduction target by 2030 from 2005 levels.¹
During the ALGA National General Assembly several meetings were held:
The Hon. Catherine King, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government committed to putting in place a team in her department responsible for bringing local government perspectives in alignment to net zero across her portfolio.
Cr. Amanda Stone of Yarra called on The Hon. Kristy McBain, Minister for Local Government to recognise the local government contribution via the Nationally Determined Contribution as well as to urgently establish effective partnership on climate action during the Local Leaders breakfast hosted by the Cities Power Partnership.
The Minister for Climate Change and Energy, The Hon. Chris Bowen was not available to meet with local government leaders due to the energy crisis. The Minister had made a commitment pre-election to meet together with local government leaders to discuss accelerating climate action and we are following up with his office for this to come to fruition.
In addition, our members pushed forward a multitude of motions on climate and sustainable urban development as well as opened pathways for ongoing collaboration:
Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds of Hobart was a keynote speaker at the Climate Action Network Australia Conference focused on power through collaboration alongside Minister Andrew Barr and Senator Pocock, both of the ACT.
Cr. Amanda Stone of Yarra and Mayor Ann Ferguson of Mt Barker met with the Charge’ d’affaires of the European Union Mr Kees Keijzer and Adviser Lynne Hunter on opportunities to support the Pacific in climate action.
ICLEI Oceania and Global Covenant hosted a Mayors for Climate Planning Session on Sunday 17 June to get input from local government leaders who are taking action on climate change on the proposal to the Federal Government.
The Proposal to the Federal Government includes:
By the United Nations Climate Conference COP27 Sharm El-Sheikh, local government leaders are calling on the Australian Federal Government to:
Recognise Local Government Contributions ² in the Australian Nationally Determined Contributions to ensure current national climate targets are genuinely ambitious.
Establish an effective partnership between local governments and the Federal Government that will deliver an Accord that defines common objectives to strengthen climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience between the three tiers of government.³
Allocate significant funding to deliver on the Accord based on the real resilience costs of climate change and what is required for local governments to take action to protect their communities. If you are interested to get more involved in climate action, reach out to jessica.robbins@iclei.org.
This proposal has been developed based on extensive consultation with members of ICLEI Oceania and signatories to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy with the support of Better Futures Australia.
Congratulations to the team at ALGA for convening a successful National General Assembly.
1. Lynch, A., Oke, C & A. Leavesley (2021). State of play: Local governments and city networks accelerating climate action in Australia. ICLEI Oceania. These accumulated targets were calculated by looking at council emissions reduction targets from a variety of sources including the Ironbark, BZE and ICLEI local government survey from 2021, the Snapshot Climate tool, ClimateWorks, 100% Renewables, Climate Emergency Australia, CPP and Ironbark data. Over half of the way is 50.3% to meeting a 43% reduction target by 2030.
2. The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy Multilevel Climate Action Playbook (2021) sets out recommendations on the integration of Local and Regional Contributions (LRCs) into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). https://www.globalcovenantofmayors.org/press/the-multilevel-climate-action-playbook-for-local-and-regional-governments/
3. This partnership and Accord model is inspired by the Victorian Local Climate Action Partnership: strengthening local-state government collaboration on climate action. July 2016.