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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POST WAS UPDATED IN DECEMBER 2021. PLEASE GO TO THE FOLLOWING LINK FOR THE UPDATED VERSION: 

Net zero commitments by states, local governments and communities – Dec 2021

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Science tells us that we need to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury to limit global warming to 1.5°C and to reduce the destructive impacts of climate change on human society and nature. In Australia, more and more local governments and communities are demonstrating climate leadership by committing to ambitious carbon or renewable energy goals. This trend is also reflected at state and territory level. As of 9 July 2020, every single Australian state and territory has a formal target to reach net zero by 2050.

100% Renewables has been tracking ambitious carbon and renewable energy commitments made by all levels of Australian governments since we developed the 100% Renewable Energy Master Plan for Lismore City Council in 2014. In May 2017, we published our first blog post on the energy and carbon commitments of states, territories and local governments. We posted several updates since then – in March 2018, October 2018 and in October 2019.

Please see below a video, which shows the timeline of ambitious climate commitments of local governments from 2017 to 2020.

In this update, we present a graphic with state and territories commitments. We also show state-by-state commitments by capital cities, local governments and communities. We also cover memberships by local governments of the Cities Power Partnership, CEDAMIA, the Global Compact of Mayors, and C40.

States’ and territories’ climate change commitments

States and territories are committing to both renewable energy as well as carbon reduction targets. Most targets are in line with the Paris Agreement, which means that zero net emissions have to be reached by mid-century to avoid catastrophic climate change.

 Further information

If you are interested in learning more about what it means to set targets in line with the Paris Agreement, please read our blog post on ‘Science-based targets in a nutshell’.

 Further information

For more information on the net zero plan of NSW, please have a read of our blog post ‘NSW Net Zero Plan Stage 1: 2020–2030’.

Capital cities’ climate change commitments

Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have been carbon neutral for many years and soon, they will be joined by Adelaide. The ACT Government has strong carbon reduction targets in place, while Perth has only committed to a carbon reduction target of 20%. Hobart doesn’t have any official targets but has a strong history of carbon reduction initiatives.

 Further information

If you are interested in learning more about the differences of ‘carbon-neutral’ and ‘net-zero’, you can read our blog post on ’What is the meaning of carbon-neutral, net-zero and climate-neutral?‘.

For more information on how to become carbon neutral under Climate Active, please have a read of our blog post series on ‘Climate Active – Frequently Asked Questions’.

Exciting developments are that from January 2019, Melbourne and the City of Newcastle have been powered by 100% renewable energy, which was soon followed by the City of Sydney and Hawkesbury Council.

 Further information

If you are interested in how you can achieve 100% renewable energy, you can read our blog post on ‘Eight ways to achieve 100% renewable electricity’.

You can also download our whitepaper on ‘How to achieve 100% renewable energy’

Local governments – ambitious commitments

The following table showcases ambitious carbon and energy commitments by capital cities and local governments and their communities. ‘Ambitious’ means that commitments need to be in line with science. If a local government is committing to the same goal as the state or territory jurisdiction it falls under, it is not considered ambitious, as it is implied that the local government will decarbonise consistent with state or territory policies. Please note that in future updates to this list, we will only report on net-zero targets ahead of 2050.

The following tables are split into renewable energy commitments and carbon reduction commitments.

 Further information

If you are interested in learning more about the difference between renewable energy and carbon targets, you can read our blog post on whether carbon neutral and 100% renewables are the same.

If you are interested in learning more about target scopes, you should read our target series, starting at the blog post ‘What should be the scope of your target’.

From the list above, 100% Renewables is proud to have developed many of the strategies and plans for councils that have committed to ambitious targets, and/or helped them to deliver on their target, including:

• Bega Valley Shire Council
• Bellingen Shire Council
• Broken Hill Council
• Blue Mountains City Council
• City of Bayswater
• City of Canada Bay
• Coffs Harbour City Council, case study
• Inner West Council
• Ku-ring-gai Council
• Kyogle Council
• Lismore City Council
• Nambucca Shire Council
• Port Macquarie-Hastings Council
• City of Parramatta Council
• Randwick City Council, case study
• Tweed Shire Council, case study
• Waverley Council
• Willoughby City Council

Ambitious renewable energy and carbon commitments by NSW councils and the ACT Government

Ambitious renewable energy and carbon commitments by VIC councils

Ambitious renewable energy and carbon commitments by QLD councils

Ambitious renewable energy and carbon commitments by SA councils

Ambitious renewable energy and carbon commitments by WA councils

Community climate change commitments

Until recently, most local governments focused on their own operations by developing targets and actions plans. With the increasing need to rapidly reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change, more and more councils are now looking at how they can lead and facilitate carbon mitigation in their communities.

The following table shows renewable energy and carbon commitments made by local governments on behalf of their community.

 Further information

For more information on how to set targets and develop action plans for communities, please have a read of our blog post on setting targets for community emissions.

At this stage, only the NSW and VIC graphics have been split into council operations’ and communities’ commitments. For other states, please refer to the maps in the previous section.

Ambitious renewable energy and carbon commitments by NSW communities

Ambitious renewable energy and carbon commitments by VIC communities

From the list above, 100% Renewables is proud to have developed many of the renewable energy strategies and plans for communities including:

• Canada Bay LGA
• Clarence Valley LGA
• Hawkesbury LGA
• Ku-ring-gai LGA
• North Sydney LGA
• Queanbeyan-Palerang LGA
• Willoughby City LGA

Local governments in Australia that have declared a climate emergency

Local governments are playing a key role in leading the climate emergency response, which is why CEDAMIA (derived from Climate Emergency Declaration and Mobilisation In Action) campaigns for a Climate Emergency Declaration at all levels of government.

CEDAMIA calls on all Australian federal, state, and territory parliaments and all local councils to:

• Declare a climate emergency
• Commit to providing maximum protection for all people, economies, species, ecosystems, and Civilisations, and to fully restoring a safe climate
• Mobilise the required resources and take effective action at the necessary scale and speed
• Transform the economy to zero emissions and make a fair contribution to drawing down the excess carbon dioxide in the air, and
• Encourage all other governments around the world to take these same actions.

CEDAMIA works in conjunction in conjunction with CACE – Council Action in the Climate Emergency. Step 1 is to declare a climate emergency, and step 2 is to mobilise your community and move into emergency mode. According to CACE, a local government’s key role is to

• Lobby state and national governments to adopt and fund full climate emergency response
• Encourage other councils to implement a climate emergency response through networks and by leading by example
• Have local emergency action through education, mitigation and resilience building
• Educating council staff about the climate emergency and what council can do to respond

The following local governments have declared a climate emergency:

 Further information

For more information on 5 key considerations for declaring for climate emergency plans, please read our article, which also includes a video.

Local Governments that are members of Cities Power Partnership

The Cities Power Partnership (CPP) is Australia’s largest local government climate network, made up over 127 councils from across the country, representing almost 11 million Australians. Local councils who join the partnership make five action pledges in either renewable energy, efficiency, transport or working in partnership to tackle climate change.

There are dozens of actions that councils can choose from ranging from putting solar on council assets, switching to electric vehicles, to opening up old landfills for new solar farms. The following table shows current local government members of CPP.

Local Governments that are members of Global Covenant of Mayors

Global Covenant of Mayors or GCoM is the largest global alliance for city climate leadership. GCoM is built upon the commitment of over 10,000 cities and local governments across 6 continents and 138 countries. In total, these cities represent more than 800 million people. By 2030, Global Covenant cities and local governments could account for 2.3 billion tons CO₂-e of annual emissions reduction.

In Australia, 27 councils are members of GCoM. To join the GCoM, you need to develop citywide knowledge, goals, and plans that aim at least as high as your country’s own climate protection commitment(s) or Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Climate Agreement.

As a partner of the GCoM, you need to undertake the following:

• Develop a community greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory
• Assess climate risks and vulnerabilities
• Define ambitious climate mitigation, resilience and energy targets
• Create full climate action plans

We recently helped the City of Newcastle with their submission to GCoM, so please contact us if you need help with filling in the GCoM questionnaire.

Local Governments that are members of C40

C40 is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. C40 supports cities to collaborate effectively, share knowledge and drive meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change. In Australia, Melbourne and Sydney are members.

If you need help with your own target or plan

100% Renewables are experts in helping local governments and communities develop carbon mitigation and climate adaptation targets, strategies and plans. If you need help with developing a target and plan that takes your unique situation into consideration, please contact  Barbara or Patrick.

Please let us know if there are any commitments that are missing, or if any commitment needs a correction. You can contact us for high-resolution copies of the graphics in this article.

Feel free to use an excerpt of this blog on your own site, newsletter, blog, etc. Just send us a copy or link and include the following text at the end of the excerpt: “This content is reprinted from 100% Renewables Pty Ltd’s blog.