Councils set to spend up on climate change

Jessica Benton
THE REGION’S councils plan to spend millions of dollars battling climate change.
City of Greater Geelong, Surf Coast Shire and Borough of Queenscliffe set aside cash in the draft 2009/2010 budgets for various environmental projects linked to climate change.
The City proposed spending $1.9 million on water initiatives and $300,000 on a greenhouse “local action plan”.
The City and Borough also recently signed an Association of Bayside Municipalities Climate Change Charter.
The charter sets guidelines for bayside councils to act on supposed climate change impacts such as rising sea levels and drought.
Councillor John Doull, who holds a climate change portfolio on Geelong’s council, said the City had already implemented various environmental initiatives to address climate change.
“Last year council adopted its greenhouse response, which implements actions to reduce our corporate greenhouse footprint through energy conservation, changes to the types of fuel we use, more-efficient equipment and using alternative power,” he said.
“This ongoing program will continue and will now also examine the possible impacts of climate change and how we may have to plan and adapt, particularly along our long coastline.”
Surf Coast Shire’s draft budget included a $25 increase in the shire’s “municipal charge”.
The shire’s budget said $19 of the increase would be spent on “environmental management and addressing the effects of climate change”.
The shire also planned to employ a climate change expert.
Borough planning and places manager Karen Hose said council would undertake various climate change-related initiatives in the next four years, including employment of a “sustainability and community development officer”.
The Borough had also adopted a project to identify climate change risks, Ms Hose said.
Geelong Environment Council president Joan Lindros welcomed the council’s spend up on climate change.
“I think it’s really good they’re incorporating climate change issues into their budgets but it’s most important it’s all transparent and people are aware of what’s going to be spent, how its going to be spent and what the final outcomes are,” she said.
However, Ms Lindros wanted council to account for its spending on climate change “transparently” so ratepayers could determine whether they were getting value for money.
Climate change sceptic and Geelong Weather Services operator Lindsay Smail accused the councils of wasting ratepayers’ money.
“It seems like a lot of money to be putting toward something that is not certain,” he said.
“These projections of future climate change are based on United Nations scenarios and are not universally agreed to by the scientific community.
“We should be looking at the current evidence and not what some computer model thinks is going to happen.”