Sydney’s Sutherland Shire Council’s Carbon Neutrality Motion

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The issue of carbon neutrality was on the agenda for last night’s Sutherland Shire Council meeting.

At the time of writing it’s not yet clear how those discussions went – or if it they even occurred. This post will be updated when more information is available.

While some council meetings across Australia have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation; Sutherland Shire Council says last night’s meeting was to proceed as Council Chambers are configured to facilitate required social distancing and public gallery seating was to be organised to enable a 1.5 metre space between those attending.

The motion on carbon neutrality that was to be discussed was submitted by Cr. Kent Johns, who is currently the Vice President of the NSW Liberal Party.

The motion would see Council committing to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 with respect to its own operations. This would be achieved through the use of renewable energy, along with improvements in waste management, operations and logistics.

The motion also calls for a draft strategy be provided to Council by August this year outlining how carbon neutrality will be achieved. Preparation of this document – ClimateCleanCouncil2030 – would be supported by a working party of Councillors. Additionally, the Shire’s business community would be engaged with view to creating another strategy and action plan called ClimateCleanCommunity2030.

Craig Kelly Unhappy With Motion

Sutherland Shire Council covers part of the electorates of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Liberal backbencher/Member for Hughes Craig Kelly.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported a couple of days ago Mr. Kelly wasn’t particularly happy with the motion, saying it runs contrary to the policies of the Federal Liberal Party. He commented given the situation with COVID-19, “there might be more important things to do”.

The coronavirus crisis is certainly very important, but that will hopefully eventually burn out while the issue of climate change is and will continue to burn on – and fiercely. Some have commented that if we tackled climate change with as much effort as the battle against the coronavirus, we could get on top of things pretty quickly.

Solar Power In Sutherland Shire

As for Council’s efforts regarding renewable energy to date, there doesn’t seem to have been much happening on that front. However, the Australian Photovoltaic Institute notes that across the local government area approximately 9,187 solar power systems had been installed by the end of September last year (~39MW total capacity); the vast majority of those being systems under 10kW capacity (8,765 systems, 30.8MW capacity). APVI estimates approximately 13.4% of dwellings in Sutherland Shire had solar panels installed at that point, compared to a statewide estimate of 20.4%.

In the 2016 Census, there were 218,464 people in Sutherland Shire. Among its suburbs are Sutherland, Cronulla and Caringbah.