MILDURA Rural City Council will press ahead with a goal to achieve net zero emissions for council operations by 2050, despite concerns raised at the monthly meeting late last month.
The Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Policy has council “committed to demonstrating environmental best practice in its operations, fostering environmentally responsible behaviour in its staff and contractors and using its experience and influence to promote actions towards sustainability and climate resilience in the wider community”.
While Cr Glenn Milne could see value in the policy, he said he felt there was a number of areas that needed further planning.
“Are we taking on too much with this policy, where the government will say, ‘Hang on, you have adopted it, you have accepted the responsibility, so you can fund it’,” he said.
“Maybe it goes a little bit too far at this stage, or maybe it just doesn’t explain enough or give some pathways to bring the community along with it.
“I have got concerns about it.”
Cr Milne said having the policy put pressure on people using single-use plastics.
“We have seen the banning of single plastic plates, from (a retailer) that will impact on some families,” he said.
“Are we putting too much on families? Single-use plastics, that’s wrapping your food in plastic — what’s the alternative?
“Can people in our community afford that? These are some of the issues that we need to be considering when we have got something in place and we are going to go out there and sell it to our community.
“Is our community going to accept that or how are we going to sell it to them?”
Cr Jodi Reynolds said there were other costs for Cr Milne to consider.
“The worries that you have for the costs of implementing these things,” she said.
“The worry that I have, and that many people have, is the cost of not implementing these things
“Plastics can be an impost on people but what we should be aiming for as a council is to have influence on not only our state representatives but business in general and to put pressure on those businesses and states to make sure that the products that we have available to us in the stores give us a choice, and give us an equal choice, which is certainly possible.
“There is nothing that is impossible, nothing that is going to be putting too much of a burden on our people.
“In fact the costs really lie in not doing anything.”
