Friday, 11 December 2009
Tomorrow, Saturday 12 December, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle will depart for Copenhagen to join a gathering of 80 of the world’s mayors to ensure that cities are recognised and included in the international climate change agreement under negotiation at the COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The Lord Mayor’s activities in Copenhagen will include speaking alongside Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, and Mayor of Toronto, David Miller to present Melbourne’s achievements in sustainability and discuss solutions based on Melbourne’s experience in climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Cr. Cathy Oke will also be present at these discussions in her role as an ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) representative.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said: “Cities are responsible for producing 75% of carbon emissions globally and we will be instrumental in delivering the innovative and practical solutions required in the battle against climate change.
“Australia’s capital cities are spending $114 million on sustainability initiatives and these projects will contribute a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. If national governments recognise our contribution, we will be in a much stronger position to attract federal funding and deliver even greater initiatives with bigger impacts.
“Our track record at the City of Melbourne illustrates that we, like other local governments, can make a real difference in addressing climate change. We have developed more ambitious policies, programs and frameworks than national governments.
“In 2005, Melbourne enshrined green rating into our planning scheme. We established our Zero Net Emissions by 2020 policy in 2002 and our CH2 building was the first six star Green Star new commercial building in Australia leading the way in ecologically sustainable design.
“We estimate that our new 1200 Buildings program will generate private sector investment of around $1.3bn and create hundreds of green jobs through environmental building retrofits to substantially improve water and energy efficiency in two thirds of the municipality’s commercial building stock. Commercial buildings account for more than half of the City of Melbourne’s greenhouse gas emissions. This program will reduce those emissions by 383 kilotonnes annually.
“Melbourne is also participating as one of 20 cities retrofitting existing buildings through the Clinton Climate Initiative. As part of this project we are upgrading the energy and water performance of 13 of City of Melbourne’s buildings.”
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle will be one of five mayors delivering the summit’s joint message of ‘Action Now,’ speaking alongside mayors of Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Mexico City and Delhi. He will also meet individually with New York Mayor Bloomberg to share best practice.
He said: “I want to listen and learn from my counterparts around the world about their own successes in sustainability. I will be interested to hear how they engaged the hearts and minds of their own communities and how they have been able to work with them to bring about change.”
Chair of the Environment Committee, Cr. Cathy Oke who is currently in Copenhagen said: “It is important to recognise the role of local governments in delivering solutions to the climate change issues we are facing. It’s time to rethink sustainability, livability, competitive advantage and economic prosperity and understand how linking all four has made Melbourne a world leader in its field.”
Both Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and Cr. Oke will be regularly blogging from Copenhagen on the City of Melbourne’s YouTube channel, allowing Melburnians to keep up to date on the campaign to include cities in international climate agreements.
Further information is available at Copenhagen Climate Summit.