A COALITION of councils in the south-east of Victoria have put together a plan to fight climate change.
The South East Councils Climate Change Alliance features representatives from Kingston, Frankston, Mornington Peninsula, Bayside, Bass Coast, Cardinia, Casey, Greater Dandenong, and Port Phillip councils. It has released a strategy outlining measures to focus on to tackle the growing dangers of climate change.
Many of the SECCCA councils, including Frankston, Kingston, and the Mornington Peninsula, are along the coastline. A report commissioned by the Victorian Marine and Coastal Council and Life Saving Victoria earlier this year estimates that hundreds of houses in those municipalities are at risk of inundation (“Report spells doom for coastal houses” The News 30/8/23).
Priority projects identified in the SECCCA strategy include a business energy support program, residential home resilience ratings tool, small business climate adaptation toolkit, the transition to electric or hydrogen heavy-duty vehicles in council fleets, a review of the vulnerability of council assets, advocacy on climate action, and opportunities for purchase of carbon offsets.
SECCCA chair Michael Whelan said, “local government is at the coal-face of climate change, and we are taking up the challenge to help our communities build resilience and prepare for future impacts.”
“This new strategy presents an exciting step change for our region,” he said. “SECCCA has taken a whole of community view, to work together and come up with practical steps to help mitigate and manage climate risk in our region. This strategy charts the path for our members to work together and with our community to address climate change in our region.
“Community surveys suggest that more than three quarters of residents are very concerned about the impacts of climate change in our region, but we know it’s a challenge that we can’t tackle alone.”
The strategy was presented to Victorian climate action minister Lily D’Ambrosio last week.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 15 November 2023