Climate change a council priority

Portland Observer
Friday 25/1/2008 Page: 1

CLIMATE change and its impact on the shire will become a key focus of Glenelg Shire Council policy through a new advisory committee. The committee includes mayor Geoff White and councillors Robert Halliday, Frank Zeigler and Tom Munro, as well as a council staff member, and will help council develop its responses to the phenomenon. Cr Munro proposed the establishment of the committee at the council's monthly meeting on Tuesday night after attending an annual Australian Local Government Association conference in Darwin last month, which featured numerous presentations about climate change.

The conference was held at the same time as Cr Munro was representing local government association Timber Towns Victoria nationally at the inaugural meeting of the National Timber Taskforce. He said climate change could cause sea level rises and severe weather. However, the shire could also benefit from the renewable energy sector, particularly if the council promotes the region as a centre of excellence for wind, wave and geothermal energy. "This should put council on the front foot in terms of climate change issues," he said. "The establishment of the Centre for Excellence would provide a strong impetus for the council to progress and complement its response to climate change and emission reduction targets," he added.

The committee will provide advice to council about climate change policies and strategies, emission reduction targets and how council could work with the community to deal with climate change. It is also expected to improve awareness of the potential positive and negative impacts of climate change on the Glenelg Shire. "I look forward to some great outcomes for the benefit of all of the shire," Cr Karen Stephens said after seconding the motion.

Draft terms of reference for the committee will be presented to council at its March 25 meeting. Meanwhile, the council considered its response to the latest Victorian Coastal Strategy draft, prepared by the Victorian Coastal Council following recommendations by planning consultant Scott Taylor, and adopted all of his suggestions. The VCC, in consultation with senior Victorian scientists reviewing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest report, anticipates that in 80 to 100 years' time the sea level along the state's coast is expected to rise by 40 to 80 centimetres at a minimum.

Mr Taylor said people, industries and major infrastructure could potentially be "displaced by coastal processes resulting from climate change," and this needed to be better recognised by the VCS. He said future coastal settlement policy should be "subject to the outcomes of climate change vulnerability assessments and the subsequent adoption strategy, rather than pre-empting it." Climate change forecasting therefore needed to be defined in terms of whether it was an assumption, probability or certainty.

He recommended that Victorian Planning Provisions be amended to introduce a coastal risk management zone "to allow for a consistent response to the issue in all coastal areas", and said benchmarks should be set that factored in sea level rises and allowed for consistent planning decision-making. He encouraged the VCC to adopt a stronger statement about "the prohibition of development in new areas subject to threat", and said they should acknowledge the potential legal liabilities resulting from inappropriate approvals for at-risk developments.

Increased ocean acidity could also have a "massive impact" on fishing, and this needed a bigger commitment so the issues could be better understood. Renewable energy generation facilities and their infrastructure should also receive encouragement under planning schemes, Mr Taylor said. The issue of the coordination of climate change responses across various levels of government and the community needs to be addressed, he added. Glenelg Shire's standing as a "centre of excellence for wind, wave and geothermal energy" could be boosted by the reconnection of the Henty Park bore and geothermal energy to Portland. Former Portland Water Board engineer, Neil Buckingham, is a strong proponent of that reconnection.