Residents rally as report finds climate plan delivering results

A SEA of red greeted Borough of Queenscliffe councillors at their August meeting last week, as the chief executive tabled a report into the borough’s Climate Emergency Response Plan (CERP).

The report was the result of a notice of motion, presented to the council at its May meeting by deputy mayor Brendan Monahan, and called for a breakdown of all costs associated with the CERP and an evaluation of the plan’s “tangible benefits” to the community since it was adopted in 2021.

“We all know we’re sailing close to the wind financially and, as my mother always said, you can only spend it once,” mayor Di Rule said at the time of her support for the report, which she claimed would provide a better understanding of the “financial and practical” implications of the CERP.

The report pre-empted the plan’s scheduled five-year review, due to begin later this year and be completed by May next year.

It found expenditure on the CERP has represented just one per cent of the council’s total spend over the past five years, while more than $4.7m in grants has been received by the borough to put towards climate initiatives, funds the report notes the strategic document was central to enabling.

Since the CERP’s inception, the report also found, the borough has nearly halved its carbon emissions, and almost $34,000 worth of electricity cost savings have been achieved, through participation in the Victorian Energy Collaboration.

Fears the borough intends to walk back its support for local climate action have only grown in the months since the new-look council was elected last year, with its decision to remove reference to climate change mitigation from its community vision last month sparking outrage among residents.

Sending a clear message to the council on Wednesday last week, the gallery was packed with members of Queenscliffe Climate Action Now (QCAN) – the community group that developed the CERP in partnership with the council – and its supporters, with much of the crowd wearing red, a uniform chosen by the group to highlight the climate crisis.

In a show of support, councillors Di Rule, Isabelle Tolhurst and Hélène Cameron also wore red, with Cr Rule emphasising the efforts of QCAN.

“It’s not for nothing that you were named the community organisation of the year. Your work is valued and appreciated and I for one am wearing red in support of QCAN and have always supported QCAN.”

She said concerns the council were to vote on the CERP at the meeting were misplaced, and the report was “simply a part of doing a five-year review” into the CERP to understand the “facts and figures”.

“That’s what we’ve got tonight. Councillors will meet with the CEO and officers to go through that report and ask the questions that we might have, and I encourage all of your ask questions about the figures that are presented.”

Cr Tolhurst said the report, which reflected favourably on the CERP, offered an opportunity for the borough to “devise even stronger benchmarks” to drive climate action forward

“What the report clearly shows to me is that value for money for ratepayers and ambition in local climate action can be delivered together. They’re not mutually exclusive and I think it’s reductive and unproductive to suggest they are,” she said to applause.