HAWKESBURY City Council has signed up for the Climate Council’s newly announced Cities Power Partnership.
A number of councils across Australia, including Hawkesbury, have signed up for the partnership, which have pledged to do what they can to tackle carbon emissions at the local level.
Hawkesbury Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett will attend the launch in Canberra today, and in the spirit of things cadged a lift from a friend who owns a Tesla, which runs on an electric engine and has no carbon dioxide emissions.
Mayor Lyons-Buckett said as part of the partnership, Council had agreed to undertake five things which would lower emissions or make Council operations more energy efficient.
“We are working on street lighting and converting them to LEDs. We have resolutions investigating solar energy,” she said.
“We also have various measures of making ourselves more energy efficient.”
She said the councils involved would also share information, and have access to some funding options.
“The aim is to share knowledge about reducing emissions and projects in a way it is so we don’t reinvent the wheel,” she said.
“The Climate Council is providing the knowledge hub and linking up councils to help them work better.
“It doesn't cost Council anything.
“It will help Council achieve what it wants to achieve when it examines its five goals.”
Mayor Lyons-Buckett said reducing emissions did not have to include drastic measures.
“It is really all about awareness and drawing people's attention to what the possibilities are,” she said.
“It doesn't have to be these really out there, radical things that unfortunately some people think it could be.
“There are many ways [to reduce emissions], they are often small but their effect when combined is tangible.”
Mayor Lyons-Buckett and friend Sally Perini drove together to the launch of the partnership.
Perini is so keen on the initiative she had both her cars branded with ‘City Power Partnership’ to draw attention to it.
Teslas do not produce carbon dioxide emissions, because they are powered using electricity rather than petrol or diesel engines.
Electric cars are not completely emissions free however, when taking into account the construction, and potentially the charging, depending on how that power is sourced.
The Mayor said replacing petrol or diesel powered cars with electric ones was one example of how councils could reduce their emissions – although made it clear she was not advocating for this to happen at Council.
