Climate Change An Economic Issue

Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has described Climate Change as an economic issue and Council’s leadership on this as critical.   “Council needs to take action to address climate change now,” said Lord Mayor Vatskalis “failure to do so carries significant risks including irreparable damage to our environment and infrastructure, rapidly rising insurance costs, financial losses and risk of litigation from inaction.”    “As the custodians of more than $1B in community assets, including swimming pools, community centres, libraries, parks, roads, street lights and an extensive stormwater system, it is incumbent on Council to ensure these assets are protected.”   “Identifying economic opportunities is also key and switching to renewable energy is just one way Council can deliver financial savings and ensure rates are kept to a minimum.”   City of Darwin’s Draft Climate Emergency Response and Strategy, which provides a roadmap for how Council plans to address climate change, is now open for stakeholder and community consultation.   “Our aim is to mitigate the impacts of climate change including to human health, ecosystems, infrastructure, the local economy and most importantly to our rate payers,” concluded Lord Mayor Vatskalis.   City of Darwin’s draft Climate Emergency Strategy details Council’s four key goals – promoting resilience and adapting to climate change, identifying economic opportunities, achieving net-zero Council-controlled emissions by 2030 and supporting our community achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.   Consultation on the draft Strategy will take place from 25 November to 11 February, and inform Council’s action plan to promote a resilient and prosperous city.

To provide feedback on City of Darwin’s draft Strategy go to - engage.darwin.nt.gov.au/climate   Background On 31 May, 2019 Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis declared a climate emergency, stating he was alarmed at the escalation of climatic issues impacting our city and in December he hosted a Climate Emergency

Roundtables for community and business leaders.  At the time Lord Mayor Vatskalis made a commitment to identify opportunities to reduce City of Darwin’s greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.   City of Darwin has also facilitated an audit of emissions produced across the Darwin metropolitan area, determining the city is responsible for producing approximately 2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually – across transport (60%), electricity (34%) and waste (6%).