In 2006, 240 councils around Australia had emissions reduction targets for both their corporate (or internal) emissions and community (or municipal-wide) emissions. They were generally ad-hoc, political and aspirational.

While local government has undoubtedly led the way with emissions reduction, renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, those targets set in 2006 were not met.

Fast-forward to 2018 and there are now clear international protocols in place to measure emissions and set targets.

Alexi Lynch, Business Manager for Ironbark Sustainability, knows this history very well because back in 2006 he was the managing ICLEI Oceania’s Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign. His team was working with these 240 councils.

Lynch says that his view has certainly changed in the last few years, let alone the last decade: if a target is not based on what the science demands – or doesn't consider a council's ability to reduce emissions – then it's largely irrelevant.

“The sector has matured. It's time to reflect on what worked and didn't work. It's time to learn from the last decade. And it's time to set robust targets that are based on the science of climate change,” Lynch says. 

Lynch will deliver a presentation at IPWEA’s Sustainability in Public Works Conference titled How Many of the 240 Councils Met Their 2006 Emission Reduction Targets? In the presentation, Lynch will look at the dozens of Australian councils that have recently set science-derived emissions reduction targets and explain how they’ve been developed.

“We’ll get the latest from the Science-Derived Targets Local Government Working Group around the governance of ensuring targets across council areas are fair and equitable. We’ll look at how these local government targets feed in seamlessly to international protocols such as the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC) and programs such as the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy,” he says.

This presentation will also investigate:

• The three types of targets and examples:
  - Science-derived targets (top-down)
  - Action-derived targets (bottom-up)
  - Aspiration targets (everything else)
• How setting targets align with participation in the council climate programs such as the Global Covenant of Mayors; Zero Carbon Communities; Cities Power Partnership; and TAKE2
• Communicating targets
• How Australian councils are now leading the world, with feedback from the Resilient Cities in Bonn, Germany, in late April.
• Why it’s time to decouple greenhouse gas emissions profiles from targets
• DMA: Demystifying the acronyms: GPC; CCP; CPP; COM; CDP

Don’t miss Alexi Lynch’s presentation 'How Many of the 240 Councils Met Their 2006 Emission Reduction Targets?' at the Sustainability in Public Works Conference, 14-15 May, Sydney. Register now.