Alice Springs Town Council, Northern Territory, has released its ‘Climate Action Plan’ for community consultation.
Mayor, Damian Ryan, said, “This plan will shape the way Council looks at and implements improvements towards sustainability across Council in the near future.
“This is a great opportunity for the community to provide their view and guide the direction on such an important topic.”
The plan’s aims include calculating a community-wide emissions baseline and identifying a vision for reducing emissions over the next four years and beyond.
It will also provide a list of financially responsible actions for Council and the Alice Springs community to meet emissions reduction targets over short, medium, and longer timeframes.
Allocation of sufficient resources to meet the emissions reduction targets will be included along with detailed ongoing evaluation and monitoring requirements.
The plan will detail support for residents to reduce emissions in their homes and businesses.
It will identify ways climate action can be influenced beyond the local footprint.
The new action plan will supersede Council’s previous ‘Local Action Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Alice Springs’ dated June 2006.
Since 2008, Council has actively pursued expanding solar-energy capacity across all its facilities.
Earlier in 2018, Council’s first-ever ground-mounted, large-scale solar array was installed at the Alice Springs Aquatic and Leisure Centre.
The 175kW solar PV system produces up to 285MW electricity annually, for the facility to use.
This and other initiatives bring the total energy generated at Council facilities to over 575kW, putting Council well on target to meet its strategic objective to become a leader in sustainability.
