Three inspiring Mayors of Adelaide, Newcastle and Byron spoke at the Daring Cities 2020 Global Forum, the world’s largest online forum for urban leaders tackling the climate emergency. By sharing their local stories, they revealed how three similar but very different cities are paving the way towards a net-zero future. Below are excerpts from their presentations with links to further watching and reading. Visit the Daring Cities website to view recordings of these and other events.

Lord Mayor, Nuatali Nelmes

City of Newcastle
Session: Decarbonizing Cities: How to Build Coalitions and Get People on Board, 27 October 2020

Watch Recording (from 1:27:00)
DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION

Cr Nelmes shared a detailed and insightful presentation on how Newcastle is on track to become a net-zero emissions city. Newcastle is without doubt one of the front runners of Australian local governments leading the way to a low-carbon future and is working closely with their community.

As the first Council in NSW to move to 100% renewable electricity for their operations, they have also constructed a 5MW solar farm that supplies about 50% of the Council’s electricty needs. 

“Eight years ago we started developing our plan, and we set targets around our own electricity use at the City of Newcastle as well as our electricity supply and reduction in our carbon footprint. We have met and exceeded all targets over the past eight years,” said Cr Nelmes.

“We want to inspire and lead other business and community members, to look at their own emissions profile, and how we can assist with their transition to low-carbon sources. So what we’re really aiming for is a net-zero emissions city, and that’s around clean tech, electric transport as well as advancing net-zero emissions industries across the entire supply chain, including local manufacturing.” 

As a coastal city with an active working harbour, Cr Nelmes explained how Newcastle is positioning itself to be a global hub for clean-tech and innovation.

“We’re looking for the creation of renewable hydrogen and ammonia export hubs, as well as a regional bioenergy hub and green metal and mineral processing here in Newcastle. So we’re actively promoting Newcastle as a clean-tech innovation hub and an international test laboratory for the best practice carbon and water reduction technology and services for national and international markets.”

Mayor, Simon Richardson

Byron Shire Council
Session: Daring Cities 2020 Opening Plenary, Session 2, 7 October 2020

WATCH VIDEO

In this motivational short video from Byron Shire Mayor, Simon Richardson, he tell us why and how Byron is punching above its weight as a city and community committed to climate action. He also explains how councils can benefit by ‘riding the wave’ and going with the momentum rather than swimming against the tide and missing out on unique opportunities to transform their communities.

“We in Byron acknowledge climate action is required by all of us, and our community expects nothing less. As of last month there were over 1700 jurisdictions around the world to put their hands up to acknowledge what is obvious. We are in a climate emergency and we need to act accordingly.”

“In Byron we love to surf, and really when it comes to it tackling climate change is like deciding whether to get on that wave or not. For those communities, those councils, those governments that decide to paddle out and get on that wave, all the great benefits and experiences from being early on tackling climate change are there for us.”

“For those of us who are slow we simply water tread and watch others head to the beach. This is our challenge. Early adopting, ride the waves of opportunity and be part of the solution.”

Lord Mayor, Sandy Verschoor

City of Adelaide
Session: TEDxDaringCities: Daring To Go Climate Neutral, 14 October 2020

WATCH RECORDING (from 20:00)

The theme of TEDxDaringCities is cities that are going climate neutral – the how, the why now, and the how do we get more cities onboard.

TEDxDaringCities aims to showcase those bold, visionary urban leaders who have made the ultimate commitment toward tackling the climate emergency by setting a target of climate neutrality for their territories, and are actively leading the way toward achieving that target through climate change resilience and bold climate mitigation efforts.

The City of Adelaide has been working hard over the past 10 years and is now in the final stages of carbon neutral certification to meet their 2020 target. 

In her presentation, Cr Verschoor said “Adelaide has a strong appetite to encourage local innovation for systems that can be rolled out internationally. We see ourselves as a test bed for low carbon approaches, and support and actively encourage developers of low-carbon and sustainable solutions to work here on prototyping and testing.”

“Carbon Neutral Adelaide is how we describe the shared goal of the community to rapidly reduce carbon emissions in the City of Adelaide and become one of the world’s first carbon neutral cities. We have a strong focus on shifting to renewable electricity, energy efficiency, low emissions transport, and processing green waste. A milestone for us occurred this year when we became the first Council in South Australia to use 100 percent renewable electricity.

“Globally, we’ve lost over a million people and endured prolonged lockdowns and quarantine. We have had to change the way we live, work and interact with each other. That resilience and preparedness to embrace new ways of doing things is the same approach we need to adopt in order to address the climate crisis.”