City on track to net zero with $1.2 million grant

A recent progress report has concluded the City is on track to achieving our goal of a 35 per cent reduction in emissions by 2025, just as the Federal Government has announced it will provide $22 million in funding to local governments to replace petrol and diesel vehicles.

The City’s Sustainable Energy Action Plan 2020-2030 (Corporate) maps out a path to net zero by 2050 in accordance with the Australian Government’s commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Along the way to 2050, important 2025 and 2030 targets in emission reductions and renewable energy usage are being tracked, as well as the savings these measures are bringing to the City.

Over the first three years of the energy initiatives governed by the SEAP, the City can reveal that a 27 per cent reduction in emissions has occurred. This is due to initiatives such as:

• 1,019 kW worth of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, which reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 716 tCO2-e in 2022/2023 alone
• 28 electric vehicles (EVs) in our fleet including one truck, three vans, three utility vehicles and 21 passenger vehicles
• The installation of four dual EV charging stations at the public carpark of the Administration Centre, 10 at the Administration Centre’s underground carpark, one dual charger behind the Bob Daniel Community Centre in Inglewood and 16 stations at the Operations Centre.

The work will be supercharged thanks to the $1.2 million worth of funding secured for the City of Stirling with the support of WALGA to assist with the fleet transition from petrol and diesel to EVs.

Mayor Mark Irwin said progress against the SEAP targets was pleasing to see, as it was an important component in the plan to achieve the City’s vision of a sustainable City with a local focus.

“The City is progressing well toward our ambitious but pragmatic goals of achieving substantial reductions in our reliance on emissions-intensive technologies,” he said.

“At the heart of plan for renewable energy generation is the combination of our participation in another WALGA-led Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) initiative – a collaborative agreement with around 40 other local governments to purchase clean energy – in combination with our own Solar Escalation Program which now sees $600,000 budgeted annually to increase our own solar power production.

“We thank the Commonwealth Government, ARENA, WALGA and the State Government for combining forces to deliver this critical new funding to assist local governments in the capital costs of transitioning their fleets.”

For more information on the City’s sustainability measures, visit this link.