Climate change in our region

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What is climate change and what does it mean for the Macedon Ranges?

The term 'climate change' refers to changes in our climate over time, from global to local scales. It includes changes in temperature (averages, minimums, maximums), rainfall, frequency and severity of extreme weather events, sea levels and wind patterns. While there have always been some changes in the earth’s climate, it is now well accepted that the significant changes in climate experienced over the past hundred years are due to human activity.

Climate change is caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which trap heat close to the earth’s surface. The increase results from activities like extraction and burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and land clearing, and waste disposal and decomposition. While we can avoid the worst effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, some impacts are unavoidable and are already being experienced by many people and ecosystems around the globe.   

Key plans and reports on climate change

Work undertaken by the Victorian Government, in partnership with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), resulted in the Victorian Climate Science Report 2024.

Climate Ready Loddon Mallee

Climate Ready Loddon Mallee is the regional adaptation plan covering Macedon Ranges Shire and nine other local government areas. It has been developed through the Victorian Government, in accordance with Victoria’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan 2017-2020, and is a guide for the Loddon Mallee to be a climate ready, sustainable and healthy region.

The plan lists goals and priority actions for people, places and sectors, based on four planning resilience themes, namely: knowledge, connection, wellbeing and security. The goals and actions have been informed through a mix of community engagement projects, to be a co-designed regional plan.  

The final version of the plan is being prepared as at July 2021, and will be published online at ADAPT Loddon Mallee.

Climate Ready Loddon Mallee replaces the 2014 Regional Climate Adaptation Plan(PDF, 7MB).

Loddon Mallee Regional Zero Emissions Roadmap

The Loddon Mallee Zero Emissions Roadmap focuses on investing in and strengthening human capacity to unlock significant emissions reductions across five key action areas – Leadership and Coordination, Energy, Transport, Agriculture, and Land – identifying flagship regional initiatives in area that will help our region to transition to net zero emissions.

The objectives of the Roadmap are to:

  1. Improve collaboration; doing things together so we don’t need to do them separately and reinvent the wheel;
  2. Achieve economies of scale; spreading outcomes to Shires and communities that have less resources or capacity to take action locally; and
  3. Achieve equitable outcomes; ensuring that the transition to zero emissions has an equity lens and that no one in the region gets left behind.

The Roadmap has been developed through a collaboration between the City of Greater Bendigo, the Greater Bendigo Climate Change Collaboration, the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance, and the Loddon Campaspe Regional Partnership, Regional Development Victoria. It incorporates the outcomes of a range of stakeholder engagement activities conducted across the region throughout 2022-2023, including a Regional Zero Emissions Forum held in Castlemaine in March 2022.

Loddon Mallee Regional Renewable Energy Roadmap

The Loddon Mallee Renewable Energy Roadmap was released in 2020, and provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges the region faces as it transitions away from fossil fuel-based energy towards a decentralised supply of renewable energy.

It looks at scales of generation, distributed energy resources, limitations and options for grid transmission, and the benefits that renewable energy projects may bring to regional economies and communities.

Our Community Emissions Profile

The most reliable data regarding greenhouse gas emissions from all activity in the community is through Climate Snapshot.

The profile for Macedon Ranges Shire for 2022-2023 shows that a total of 516,000 tonnes CO2-e was generated from community activity – this is a 9,000 tonne reduction from the previous year. Our sources of emissions are from:

  • Transport: 35%
  • Electricity use: 34%
  • Gas use: 11%
  • Agriculture: 11%
  • Industrial Processes and Refrigerants: 5%
  • Waste: 4%

Accounting for emissions generating from any one local government area is problematic, due to the many variable factors to be considered. The Global Protocol for Community-scale greenhouse gas Inventories (GPC) is an established method for measuring emissions at the community level in a consistent manner. Climate Snapshot provides valuable insights into where our emissions are coming from in the Macedon Ranges. 

Council's Climate Emergency Plan sets out a roadmap for how Council and the community can work together to reduce emissions and build collective resilience to climate change.

Central Victorian climate today, tomorrow and the future webinar

The forecast changes in climate for the shire will impact across all sectors in the shire into the future, for example, an annual decrease of 20mm in rainfall in the region will impact on food production; water supply for consumption and for watering parks, gardens and sportsgrounds; waterway health; and potentially the species composition of vegetation communities and therefore food supply for different species of wildlife.

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