Climate Emergency Plan

On 13 December 2023, Council adopted the first Climate Emergency Plan(PDF, 6MB) to guide shire-wide action on climate change.

The plan was developed as a collaborative effort involving people from across the community and Council, through a series of workshops. A steering group involving representatives from across Council departments and key community sectors guided the development of the plan and supported the workshops.

The Climate Emergency Plan draws together, and builds upon work done in recent years to address climate change:

• the seven local community climate action plans developed through the Cool Changes program
• Council’s plan to reach zero net emissions for its operations
• a project to explore intergenerational concerns and hopes about climate change
• some internal work about how Council can better address climate risk and climate adaptation.

A total of 56 actions under six themes are listed in the plan:

• Nurturing nature
• Climate Ready Communities
• Post Fossil Fuels
• Health and Wellbeing
• Waste and the Circular Economy
• Response and Recovery

A key principle of the plan is partnership and collaboration, enabling everyone in the community to work with others in whatever way they can to help both mitigate and adopt to the impacts of climate change.

To find out more about the plan, and how you may be able to be involved in its implementation, call Council’s Sustainability Officer on (03) 5422 0333 or environment@mrsc.vic.gov.au