Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change

New Moreland Council will continue strong local climate policies

October 29, 2016 at 2:51 pm John Englart 5 comments

The Moreland Council election results are now available from the VEC website, with another strongly progressive and green Council set for the next four years to 2020.

The Greens will have 4 Councillors in the new Council, with Labor aligned Councillors numbering 3, Independents 3, and Socialist Alliance 1.

Ten of the eleven new councillors responded to the Climate Action Moreland survey on climate and sustainability. Five of the new councillors went a step further and endorsed the climate emergency declaration.

Congratulation in particular to Greens member Mark Riley, a long-time member of CAM – who has been elected for South ward. We know Mark will be pushing for Moreland to take a much stronger stand on climate change.

Sue Bolton has also been highly supportive of strong emissions reduction and climate adaptation policies. Sue has been an invaluable Council member in helping CAM with its various campaigns (fossil fuel divestment, heat wave relief, endorsement of People’s climate march).

The Greens stood on a united policy platform that included many sustainability principles including: creating the Urban Forest, bringing integrity to council, a new hub for the Arts, stopping poor quality development, funding safer walking and cycling paths, and a clean and safe local environment.

We appreciated the positive support generally from all councillors in the last term on climate change related decisions. We look forward to working with ALL the councillors on furthering climate and sustainability issues in Moreland.

Voters searching online for candidate information

The election campaign saw over 6000 site views to the election pages of Climate Action Moreland, about 4000 unique visitors. Our site statistics vindicate that many voters wanted to know where candidates stood on climate change and similar local issues and voted for candidates who promoted issues in these areas.

South ward: all three elected councillors responded to the Climate Action Moreland survey. Thanks Samantha Ratnam, Mark Riley and Lambros Tapinos.

North West Ward: Three of the four new councillors from North West ward responded to our climate survey. Thanks Oscar Yildiz, John Kavanagh and Dale Martin (Helen Davidson did not respond)

North East Ward: All four new councillors from North East ward responded to our climate survey. Thanks Natalie Abboud, Sue Bolton, Annalivia Carli Hannan, and Ali Irfanli.

Five of the new Moreland Councillors have endorsed the Climate Emergency Declaration: Ratnam, Riley, Abboud, Martin, Bolton.

Election results from the VEC website

Full details including voting centre reports and preference distribution reports for each ward from the VEC website.

North East Ward
Successful candidates
ABBOUD, Natalie (1st successful)
BOLTON, Sue (2nd successful)
CARLI HANNAN, Annalivia (3rd successful)
IRFANLI, Ali (4th successful)

Count summary
Enrolment: 45271
Formal Votes: 24934
Informal Votes: 4532 (15.38% of the total votes)
Votes Counted: 29466 (65.09% of the total enrolment)
Quota: 4987

North West Ward
YILDIZ, Oscar (1st successful)
MARTIN, Dale (2nd successful)
KAVANAGH, John (3rd successful)
DAVIDSON, Helen (4th successful)

Count summary
Enrolment: 45205
Formal Votes: 25773
Informal Votes: 3565 (12.15% of the total votes)
Votes Counted: 29338 (64.90% of the total enrolment)
Quota: 5155

South Ward
RATNAM, Samantha (1st successful)
RILEY, Mark (2nd successful)
TAPINOS, Lambros (3rd successful)
Count summary
Enrolment: 35959
Formal Votes: 18260
Informal Votes: 1688 (8.46% of the total votes)
Votes Counted: 19948 (55.47% of the total enrolment)
Quota: 4566

Cities play an important role in reducing emissions

Cities and municipal governance are important for communicating and implementing climate mitigation and adaptation policies. This has been increasingly recognised with organisations such as C40 cities and the just concluded third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, from 17-20 October 2016.

The United Nations Environment Program recently recommended that cities boost their budget allocation to walking and cycling infrastructure to 20 percent of their transport budget, to increase population health outcomes and combat climate change.

Cities will constitute up to 70 per cent of the world population by 2050.

Cities cause greenhouse gas emissions, but can also be where the solutions can be found in innovative urban planning and design, sustainable urban development that reduces inequality, increases sustainable and inclusive urban economies, fosters environmental sustainability, acknowledges that culture and cultural diversity are sources of enrichment, and provides for gender equality. Read the New Urban Agenda adopted at the UN Habitat III conference in Quito in October 2016.

In Paris at COP21 a Summit of Mayors brought together nearly a thousand local government representatives and leaders committed to 100 per cent renewables by 2050.

The C40 cities program launched the Compact of Mayors on climate change in 2015, a coalition of a local government leaders implementing climate action plans. In Victoria, the City of Moreland, along with Port Philip, Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula Shire Councils, showed leadership in joining the Compact of Mayors.

Oslo’s city government has already issued an ambitious “climate budget” with the intent of halving its carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 2020, and becoming completely carbon neutral by 2030, according to Gerald Mills at The Conversation.

While Moreland has committed to the Compact of Mayors, the Council appears to have not yet submitted a greenhouse gas inventory, targets or climate plan. Odd, given the existence of the Zero Carbon Evolution policy and target of 22 percent reduction in community emissions by 2020.

Moreland does not have the prominence of being at the top level of global cities, but we are never-the-less a Municipality which shows real leadership in addressing the climate issue which many other Australian Councils follow or emulate.

The programs of Moreland Energy Foundation (MEFL) and participation with 8 other Councils in the Northern Alliance on Greenhouse Action (NAGA) are particularly important.

Entry filed under: election, Moreland Council, news, Vote Climate. Tags: City of Moreland, MorelandVotes.