Bellingen Chamber of Commerce

BELLINGEN SHIRE COUNCIL

MEDIA RELEASE

Emission reduction target meeting recommends One Earth Living!

An intense and lively community meeting was held in Bellingen Uniting Church Hall on Saturday 29 August 2009 to provide a recommendation to the Bellingen Shire Council on a Community Emission Reduction Target.   The key outcome of the meeting was the recommendation that Council adopts a community goal of One Earth Living by 2015.  The current Australian average ecological footprint (how much land we need overall to sustain our lifestyle) is four earths!  So to get to the target of one earth living, Bellingen Shire residents would need to contribute to a reduction in ecological footprint of around 75%.

This target is proposed to be part of the Bellingen Shire Emission Reduction Program (BERP) which is aimed at reducing Council and the community’s greenhouse gas emissions through a five phase implementation process.  Adoption of emission reduction targets is Phase 2 of the BERP.

At the meeting, an initial suggestion for a community target of 2% per year on 2001 levels for the next ten years was discarded early on.  A participant stated, “Unless we choose a scientifically credible target, then we are choosing to fail”. The 2% per year target was regarded by the meeting as being too low based on what the scientific consensus recommends as well as lower than what a progressive community such as Bellingen Shire is capable of.  The difficulty of measuring community emission reductions (in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent) was also a key discussion point.

A suggestion was made that an ecological footprint assessment tool could be utilised to measure the community’s emissions. An individual’s ecological footprint is a measure of how many hectares of land it takes to support your current lifestyle, and considers things such as diet, the type and amount of travel, and the type of home you live in.  Ecological footprints for individuals are often expressed as the number of earths that it would take to support the current world population if everyone lived the way they do now.  An ecological footprint assessment is easily converted to emissions of carbon dioxide emissions.

Council is keen to receive further input from the community on the community emission reduction target of ‘One Earth Living by 2015’ or alternative recommendations and viewpoints on what Community Emission Reduction Target should be adopted. Please send your written thoughts to the Bellingen Shire Council’s Sustainability Officer by conventional mail or by email to ndenshire@bellingen.nsw.gov.au.

Further information on the proposed BERP and the outcomes of the Emission Reduction Target meeting can be found on Council’s website at www.bellingen.nsw.gov.au/environment.

Authorised by Mike Colreavy – General Manager                                    File No.:

Date:

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:            Nic Denshire

ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO BE ADDRESSED TO THE GENERAL MANAGER, PO BOX 117, BELLINGEN  NSW  2454, TELEPHONE (02) 66557300,  FAX (02) 66552310