Eco-radical residents

Daily Telegraph
Thursday 27/11/2008 Page: 17

COUNCILS would be able to penalise polluters and build wind farms, while state and federal governments would cap Australia's population and ban all future coal mines. These are just a handful of inventive solutions to tackling climate change inspired by average Central Coast residents. Knowing most community workshops on environmental issues attract the same die-hard eco warriors or alternative energy pundits, the NSW Nature Conservation Council set about hosting a climate change summit with a difference.

Sixteen local councils across NSW took part in the summit, each holding a two-day forum. Two thousand Gosford and Wyong ratepayers were randomly invited to take part in the local forum at Erina with the group eventually narrowed down to 16. The forum involved a process called "deliberative democracy" in which participants listened to talks from a panel of experts on four areas of climate change before breaking up into small groups to reach a consensus on what actions should be taken.

Their recommendations will join those from the 16 other local council areas to form a statewide, community-based report to help shape the NSW Climate Change Action Plan. The climate plan is expected to be ratified by mid next year and replace the existing NSW Greenhouse Plan. The Coast residents' recommendations are broken down into three categories community or individual actions, local government actions and state/federal actions. Across all three categories, residents have called for a "sense of urgency" when it comes to dealing with climate change.

Individually they recommend families lead by example cutting water and power use in their homes, planting more trees and becoming more self sufficient by growing community gardens. Local councils are urged to factor "whole of life" carbon costs in all council activities while the state and federal governments are asked to replace coal power stations with renewable sources of energy and to change public transport from user-pays to a cost-versus-benefit model.