Police were called to a council meeting in Adelaide’s southern suburbs on Monday night after things got a little heated. One of the items on the agenda was in relation to climate change.
The disruption during a City of Onkaparinga meeting at Noarlunga Centre resulted in a formal motion to adjourn the meeting. The ABC reports “protesters” allegedly tried to enter the chamber after a crowd gathered outside it who weren’t able to hear proceedings within due to technical issues. Councillors and staff were reportedly moved to another area for safety and police were called in to sort out the mess.
It seems the topic on the agenda that drew many was Council’s proposal to declare a climate emergency; something that has already been done by 116 governments across Australia. As the term suggests, a climate emergency declaration is an action taken to acknowledge humanity is in, well, a climate emergency. It may also include intended actions to address the situation at a local level and call for more action at a state and federal level.
Where the aggro was mainly coming from at the meeting – from those for or against such a declaration (or a bit of both) – isn’t clear, but Mayor Moira Were said she was disappointed in the “disruptive and aggressive behaviour” that occurred. And it may not have been the only issue up for discussion that contributed to the reaction when folks couldn’t hear what was happening.
But Mayor Were said there was a lot of interest in the City of Onkaparinga’s proposed declaration of a climate emergency.
“We know our community cares about this issue —81 per cent of respondents to our 2021 Community Survey agreed that ‘not addressing climate change would be a risk to our city,'” said Mayor Were. “This tells us our community want to discuss this issue and we’re working towards a solution where we can resume the meeting in a safe manner to progress this.”
City Of Onkaparinga And Climate Change
The proposed climate emergency declaration isn’t a road to Damascus moment for City of Onkaparinga. Council has been measuring corporate emissions since 1998 (in 2021-22, 6,915 tonnes CO2e) and has a target to reduce those emissions 80 per cent by 2030, using a baseline of 2010-11.
Council is on track to achieving this through actions already undertaken such as changing 12,000 street lights to LED and installing around 600kW of solar panels at various council facilities – with more on the way. Renewable energy is also being sourced from Lake Bonney wind farm for large and unmetered sites and Council is actively pursuing 100 per cent renewable energy options.
Solar Slashing Emissions (And Bills) Across The Community
City of Onkaparinga is South Australia’s largest metropolitan council. The LGA is home to more than 170,000 residents who live in suburbs including Morphett Vale, Christie Downs and Moana.
While perhaps not everyone in the local government area is on board with a climate emergency declaration or the whole emissions reduction gig, plenty in the community are keen to slash their electricity bills and have been using solar power to do so. According to this map, 51.2% of homes in Onkaparinga have had solar panels installed to the end of June last year.
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It’s a shame that the City of Onkaparinga won’t put their (our) money where their mouths are, and actually initiate incentives and rebates to encourage more solar uptake like other LGA do.