2025 Climate Action Plan of the City of Newcastle
By: Solar Australia
Tags: Australian Solar, Solar Power

The City of Newcastle has a strong history of environmental and sustainability action. It hosted the Pathways to Sustainability Conference in 1997 and participated in the Cities for Climate Protection program, which has supported the implementation of local government climate programs in Australia and New Zealand.

At a global level, the Paris Climate Agreement committed international governments, including Australia, to take and encourage action to address climate change through reducing greenhouse gas emissions and undertaking climate change adaptation. City of Newcastle has formally committed to the principles and targets of the Paris Climate Agreement.

The Council started embracing solar power in 2012 and by mid2019, it has installed half a megawatt of onsite solar. Last year witnessed the installation of four more council facilities, thus reaching a total installed capacity of 685KW.

In 2019, Council became successful in sourcing 100 per cent renewables for the City’s operational electricity requirements. Commissioning of Council’s five-megawatt solar farm in Summer Hill Waste Management last year made this transition easier. Besides slashing emissions, Summer Hill Solar Farm is expected to save around $9million over its 25-year operational lifespan.

Next in the list is Newcastle 2020 Carbon and Water Management Action Plan (CWMAP), proposed in 2011, with the aim of positioning Newcastle as a leader in carbon and water management solutions. To avoid the dangerous climate change, the plan focused on minimizing carbon emissions within the council’s operation and to use water more wisely across Newcastle community to assist in future water security. The CWMAP aims to address the global challenge of climate change and provide resource security for current and future generations.

The CWMAP helped cut carbon emissions through the construction of a five-megawatt solar farm, installation of more than half a megawatt in rooftop solar panels on council facilities across the city and suburbs, significant streetlight LED upgrades and a power purchase agreement that sees the City is running on 100 percent renewables.

The city of Newcastle recognizes an urgent need for real action on climate change. The impacts of a changing climate affect our everyday lives and have major consequences like widespread bushfires, flooding, extreme heat, and increased risk of disease and pandemics.

The increase of these events will have far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society and this clearly highlights the vulnerabilities that Australians will face. Globally, 2019 was the second hottest year on record,

Though the City has achieved 100% renewable electricity, the City still sees many new renewables-related opportunities for its operations. The City is targeting net-zero emissions from electricity across the community by 2030.

A detailed analysis of CN’s operational emissions profile, combined with best-practice actions from around the world and strong local engagement has helped in the creation of a Climate Action Plan. It underlays focused, practical actions that can achieve a Net Zero Emissions organization.

The 2025 Climate Action Plan (CAP) can be viewed as a prequel to the net-zero emissions from electricity across the community by 2030. Continuing the work of reducing emissions in the City, this Climate Action Plan (CAP) is separated into two parts — an action plan to reduce CN’s operational emissions and an action plan to reduce emissions from the City as a whole.

The Plan sets new targets and shape Newcastle’s goals and priorities for the next five years,2021–2025, as a roadmap for clean energy, resource efficiency, emissions reduction across the Council’s supply chain, and sustainable transport.

Climate Action Plan is structured around four key themes for reducing emissions across City of Newcastle Operations:

1. 100% renewable energy supply — Aims to use 100% renewable energy supply for the City of Newcastle Operations.

2. Sustainable supply chain — To identify and implement actions to reduce emissions in products and procedures across CN Operations.

3. Best practice of energy, water and waste efficiency — To ensure best practice use of resources across all CN facilities and operations

4. Zero emissions transport — To Support the transition to clean, efficient, emissions-free transport across City of Newcastle

The 2025 plan will work towards 2030 goals that include:

• Continuing to source 100% renewable electricity, which will be achieved through a combination of onsite solar energy generation, battery storage and renewable electricity power purchasing agreements (PPAs).

• Transitioning plant and equipment, including vehicles, to electric and battery-powered options or other zero-emission alternatives.

• Eliminating the use of fossil-based gas across Council operations. Where gas needs to be used in the absence of electric alternatives, renewable gas will be considered.

• Investigating and installing megawatt-scale battery storage in order to firm renewable supply and build resilience across Council’s operations.

By 2025 Newcastle aims for:

• A 30% reduction in electricity use, based on FY2019/20consumption

• 100% of all installed lighting to be LED or best practice equivalent

• A 50% reduction in liquid fuel use, based on FY2019/20 consumption

• A 50% reduction in carbon emissions from operations including Summer hill Waste Management Centre.

• 30% reduction in city-wide emissions

• 100 MW of new renewable generation capacity

• 1 MW of new community renewable energy projects

• 500 GWh of new renewables-based Power Purchase Agreements

• 10,000 registered electric vehicles

City of Newcastle operates a large number of buildings, facilities, vehicles, plant,s and equipment which all contribute to greenhouse gas emissions across its operations. Achieving net-zero emissions is both technologically and economically feasible, with much of the required technology and solutions readily available.

“Through strong and consistent actions to reduce our emissions, City of Newcastle is now recognized as one of Australia’s leading local governments in terms of addressing climate change,” Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said.

This Climate of Action Plan is built on the City’s past successes and strengths in other planning and implementation efforts. It sets new targets of 50% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and 80% reduction by 2050, with the aim of protecting the wellbeing of its residents for decades to come. As a vulnerable coastal community, addressing the challenges of a changing climate is vital for the future wellbeing of their residents and economy.