2019-07-09 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                          9 JULY 2019


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DOCUMENT INFORM AT ION
                         CLIMATE EMERGENCY DECLARATION

Author                              Director Environment and Sustainable Development, Kim Rawlings
                                    Carbon Reduction Officer, Anne Nolan
                                    Program Coordinator Climate Change Adaptation, Grant Hinner
                                    Environment and Sustainable Development Department

Index                               ECM/ Subject / Environment Management

Attachments                         1.    Key climate change projections for the Noosa LGA



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this report is to provide Council with the most current information and science with
regard to climate change and the alarming rate of current climate trends as a basis to inform
Council’s consideration on acknowledging that the planet is in a state of climate crisis and requires
an emergency response.
This report further outlines a range of actions, policy approaches and planning Council has already
taken and continues to invest in, acknowledging the impacts of climate change and Council’s role
in planning and preparing for these.
Council has demonstrated both leadership and an ongoing commitment to keep abreast of the
latest science and indicators of climate change. This report and its intention is another step by
Council in demonstrating the seriousness and importance of this issue to Council, for and on behalf
of, the community and the planet.

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Director Environment and Sustainable Development, Carbon
Reduction officer and Climate Change Adaptation Program Coordinator to the Planning &
Environment Committee Meeting dated 9 July 2019, and
A.                       Endorse the following statement:
                         “Council accepts the latest science on climate change provided in the October 2018 report
                         of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and acknowledges that the Noosa Shire
                         is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change including heat waves, more intense storms
                         and sea level rise all of which is likely to adversely affect the Noosa natural and human
                         environment. Council therefore declares that we are in a ‘Climate Emergency” which requires
                         urgent action by all levels of government”; and
B.                       Write to State and Federal Members of Parliament representing the Noosa Shire region,
                         advising of Council’s declaration and requesting they also act with urgency to address climate
                         change through legislated programs and policy positions, to drive action to reduce
                         greenhouse gas emissions and to keep global temperatures to a maximum increase of 1.5
                         degrees Celsius.

REPORT
Background
1.                       What the science is telling us
The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ‘Special Report of Global Warming
of 1.5oC (October 2018)’, prepared by ninety-one authors from forty countries, cites more than
6000 scientific references with contributions from thousands of expert and government reviewers
worldwide. The report outlines the impacts of global warming of 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels.

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