Find out how our climate is changing, what the impacts are, and what Council plans to do to reduce the impacts of climate change. You can also learn about how we support Australia’s renewable energy industry, and our community renewables program.
Our changing climate
Climate change is a critical issue that will impact our future generations.
The impacts of climate change look like:
- Higher temperatures and heat waves
- More ‘very high’ and ‘extreme’ fire danger days
- Lower water catchment supply (including the Murray-Darling)
- Higher flood risk (putting pressure on our stormwater infrastructure)
- Threats to the survival of native plants and animals
You can find more information about Australia’s future on the CSIRO website, in the Bureau of Meteorology state of the climate 2020 report, or the Climate Council’s climate risk map of Australia.
In 2019, we declared a climate emergency
The City of Mitcham declared a climate emergency in October 2019. We want to lead our community in addressing climate change and have undertaken projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
To reduce our environmental impact, we have:
- Upgraded our offices to become more energy efficient
- Installed solar panels on key Council sites;
- began upgrading our residential streetlights to LED technology;
- Added electric vehicles into our fleet.
This is a step in the right direction, but we can do more to reduce the effects of climate change.
Learn more about our response to climate change:
Our commitment to a sustainable future
At a local, state, and national level, we can help minimise the impact of climate change by switching to renewable energy, restoring our environment, becoming more energy efficient and upgrading our transport.
Our councillors met on 27 October 2020 and committed to five pledges to reduce emissions.
- Buy 100% of Council’s energy from renewable sources by 2030
- Change all streetlights to energy efficient technology by 2030
- Make Council’s fleet fully renewables-powered by 2030
- Reduce waste to landfill by 75% for Council’s commercial and domestic waste streams by 2030 with set targets and funded programs
- Choose low emission products and services by adopting sustainable procurement policies by October 2022, and incorporate zero emission design into all new Council buildings.
We’re funding programs and infrastructure to:
- Promote and drive a community transition to renewable energy
- Build our community’s capacity to net zero emissions and climate resilience
- Transition to electric powered transport
- Help our residents understand climate change and adopt sustainable habits
- Help our residents design new low energy buildings
These pledges and commitments show how we will respond to new research, technology and events to make sure we’re taking action in this global challenge.
We’re supporting the transition to renewables
Our nation has great potential to make the switch to being powered by renewable energy.
We support this transition in our own operations, and support households and businesses to make changes.
Renewable powered fleet
Our large vehicle fleet’s fuel is responsible for 22% of our corporate emissions. We can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the operational cost over a car’s lifetime by replacing traditional vehicles with electric vehicles.
Choosing electric vehicles means less noise and zero exhaust emissions, which will help to bolster our community’s health and environment. We’re taking a lead in this space, and have 11 EVs, with plans to upgrade all passenger vehicles to EVs by 2030. Another six EVs will join the fleet in FY22-23.
Accredited renewable electricity procurement
Our electricity is linked to renewable energy that we source from South Australian based bioenergy facilities such the one at the Southern Region Waste Authority in Seaford Heights. We’re working towards 100% accredited renewable electricity. Buying accredited renewable electricity is an investment in Australia’s switch to renewable energy.
Find out more about the Bioenergy Facility at Southern Region Waste Authority
Community renewable energy program
Along with ShineHub, we offered a community renewables program , with 760 households signing up for solar panels and or batteries.