City of Newcastle will charge towards a goal of net zero emissions by 2030 with a roadmap featuring 77 actions that address the root causes of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Councillors voted last night to endorse the Newcastle Climate Action Plan 2026 – 2030, ensuring climate action will be considered across all City of Newcastle operations, including maintaining a 100% renewable electricity supply, expanding our battery network, and transitioning our fleet, plant and equipment to electric or low emission alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
City of Newcastle’s Executive Manager Environment and Sustainability Marnie Kikken said achieving meaningful emission reductions requires rapid, transformative change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo achieve net zero emissions in our operations, we\u2019ll need to invest an additional $42 million over the next five years,\u201d Ms Kikken said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be seeking at least 50% of this through state and federal grants, commercial partnerships and other funding mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCity of Newcastle has already secured $5 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to deliver a battery deployment program, including a 10MWh battery at the Summerhill solar farm, and another 3.8MWh in 11 batteries across our facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the Climate Action Plan can be fully implemented, it\u2019s estimated City of Newcastle would see a return of between $3.5 million to $4 million per year from 2030 thanks to revenue from the Community Energy Precinct, savings from solar and Battery energy storage systems, fuel savings and gas to electric savings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe plan not only outlines City of Newcastle\u2019s pathway to net zero emissions by 2030, but also supports a Newcastle wide transition to net zero by 2040, in alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Climate Action Plan adopts a holistic approach to addressing climate change with a focus on creating flourishing lives for all Novocastrians. Climate action is not only about reducing emissions and managing risks, but also about supporting a healthy, resilient, inclusive and liveable city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plan was developed using economic modelling, scientific research, cost-benefit analysis and extensive community consultation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur community needs to see the Climate Action Plan as credible and deliverable so we\u2019ve made amendments to the plan based on their feedback,\u201d Ms Kikken said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA total of 239 submissions were received during public exhibition, with almost 80% agreeing climate action is a high priority, and 83% supportive of nature-based solutions, such as urban greening, tree planting and ecosystem restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPublic feedback showed more than 70% of respondents agreed with the science-based targets contained in the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCity of Newcastle is also conducting a feasibility study for a Community Energy Precinct at the Astra Street landfill site at Sandgate, which was supported by the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 60-hectare site operated from 1974 to 1995 before City of Newcastle started extensive environmental remediation to safeguard the water quality of surrounding wetlands, increase biodiversity and promote long-term native plant growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposed Astra Street Community Energy Precinct resonated strongly with respondents as a tangible project that brings together several priorities supported by the community including renewable energy, electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, and smart repurposing of underutilised land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information about the adopted Newcastle Climate Action Plan 2026 \u2013 2030 visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" City of Newcastle will charge towards a goal of net zero emissions by 2030 with a roadmap featuring 77 actions that address the root causes of climate change. Councillors voted last night to endorse the Newcastle Climate Action Plan 2026 – 2030, ensuring climate action will be considered across all City of Newcastle operations, including … Continue reading “Community and councillors give green light to Climate Action Plan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39527,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39526\/revisions\/39527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}