Council & Business
3 April, 2023
Councillors endorse partnership approach to Climate Action Plan rollout
The Central Goldfields Shire Council has endorsed a partnership approach for the rollout of its Climate Action Plan, emphasising the importance of community ownership throughout the project. Councillors moved unanimously to endorse the partnership...
The Central Goldfields Shire Council has endorsed a partnership approach for the rollout of its Climate Action Plan, emphasising the importance of community ownership throughout the project.
Councillors moved unanimously to endorse the partnership approach at last Tuesday’s ordinary council meeting, following the adoption of the Central Goldfields Climate Action Plan 2022-2030 in June last year.
Under the Climate Change Act 2017 and Local Government Act 2020, council has increasing responsibilities to mitigate and plan for climate risk within the local community and according to the report tabled at Tuesday’s meeting, this is an issue that cannot be tackled by council alone.
In moving that council endorse the partnership approach, councillor Wayne Sproull noted it was the logical decision given the Climate Action Plan had been developed alongside the community through the Climate Action Stewarding Group.
“Recently we adopted the Climate Action Plan which was developed using a partnership approach with a core group of council officers, councillors and community members,” he said.
“This was probably one of the few plans in the state to be developed this way and that worked really well.
“Work on climate change, whilst very much a council responsibility, is not limited to that and we need to work together as a community — this partnership approach takes steps to identify that.
“The partnership approach will facilitate collaborative oversight, governance and activation of the plans implementation.”
The benefits of a partnership approach, according to the report tabled to council, include a holistic approach to a complex problem, pooling of resources, community ownership, consistent messaging and is attractive to external funding bodies.
The report also states the partnership approach will involve council’s senior leadership team, local alliance for climate action, regional partnerships and council’s Climate Action Stewarding Group.
Councillor Liesbeth Long said community ownership of the climate plan was integral moving forward.
“I’m just stoked there’s a partnership approach for this, it’s a great way to go about it and it involves the local community more — I can’t wait to see where it takes us,” she said.
A website focused on local climate action will be developed in the coming months as part of the endorsement, the report reads.