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City of Wollongong
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Climate Action Commitments

Climate Emergency

Wollongong City Council declared a Climate Emergency in August 2019.

This means that we recognise urgent action is needed from all levels of government to address and combat climate change.

Through this declaration, we acknowledge that climate changes pose a serious risk to life as we know it and that current actions being implemented are not enough to limit human-caused climatic changes.

Council plays an important leadership role in helping our community move towards the ‘new normal’ of a zero-carbon future. We are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2030 and supporting the community to do the same by 2050. We have declared a Climate Emergency. We are preparing for increased temperatures, more frequent and intense storms and natural disasters such as bush fires that are likely to affect our community more often in the future.

Global Covenant of Mayors

Council became a member of the Global Covenant of Mayors in 2017. We are committed to a series of activities to achieve a resilient and low-emission society.

Under the GCoM, there are a number of requirements we have to meet. So far, we have:

  • Completed an emissions inventory for the Wollongong LGA
  • Adopted science-based Emissions Reduction Targets
  • Prepared our first Climate Change Mitigation Plan
  • Undertaken the Risk Assessment phase of our Climate Change Adaptation Plan.

For more information, visit our Global Covenant of Mayors profile.

Cities Power Partnership

Council became a member of the Cities Power Partnership program in January 2020.

This program will support the city’s move to a clean energy future by providing access to a range of resources to help reduce our emissions, evaluate and monitor actions, and provide opportunities to collaborate and share knowledge with other councils.

We have selected our pledges under this program which fall under the themes of energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable transport and working together and influencing.

For more information, visit our Cities Power Partnership profile.

We have already installed 327kW of solar photovoltaic systems across Council buildings and facilities.

A gas capture and flaring project at Whyte's Gully is in the planning phase.

Towards the end of 2020 we adopted the Electric Vehicle Charging Stations on Public Land Policy PDF, 284.21 KB to support the uptake of electric vehicles by increasing charging infrastructure in the city.

We have also recently updated our Cycling Strategy PDF, 2706.16 KB to support more people to use active transport throughout the city.

In December 2019 we adopted two emissions reduction targets; net zero emissions by 2030 for Council operations, and net zero emissions by 2050 for the City of Wollongong.

Our administration building has a six-star Green Star rating, and many of our buildings and facilities have undergone energy-efficient lighting and HVAC upgrades.

We have upgraded many of our streetlights to energy-efficient LEDs and have also done the same with lighting at many sports fields across the Council area.