Project Update - May 2023

Community engagement to inform the development of the Climate Change Mitigation Plan wrapped up earlier this year, after an extensive and successful campaign.

We received around 400 responses to the community survey, over 200 responses from local businesses, and spoke to many community members directly through pop-up stalls, targeted discussions with community groups, and special events.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak with us, attended an event, or completed the survey.

We’ve spent the last few weeks collating all of the feedback data and finding themes and trends in what you told us. This feedback is helping us to determine where best we should focus our energy to help the community reduce emissions.

Key Findings

We've learned a lot from the information shared with us during the engagement, including:

• There is a high level of understanding around the impacts of climate change in the community, however, there is a knowledge gap in terms of practical things the community can do to reduce emissions.
• 96% of survey respondents supported the adoption of a 2030 interim community emissions reduction target to support our net zero by 2050 target.
• The top three emissions reduction themes residents and businesses already contribute to were; waste diversion, energy efficiency, and sustainable transport. However, the areas participants thought we need to focus on most were; community renewable energy solutions, household solar and battery, and electrification.

What's next?

We’ve briefed the Councillors on the outcomes and potential abatement actions for Council’s new Plan and we’re currently busy conducting internal consultation to draft the action plan. Once the new document is finalised, we'll submit a report to Council seeking to exhibit the new Plan for further community feedback. We're aiming for this to happen around July 2023. We'll give you another update around this time and you'll be invited to view the document and tell us your thoughts.

We are also still actively implementing actions from the existing Plan, such as investigating options for community batteries through the Federal Government’s Community batteries program.

Look out for our Electrify Wollongong campaign later this month promoting the cost-saving and emissions-reduction benefits of electrification.