The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) has submitted feedback to the Federal Government regarding its Transport and Infrastructure Net Zero Consultation Roadmap, encouraging a cooperative, holistic strategy.
The submission highlighted that local governments play two important roles in emissions reduction – reducing their emissions and supporting local communities to reduce their carbon footprints.
ALGA said that the roadmap will support and enable the important work local governments are already doing on emissions reduction. Including local government perspectives will also ensure a community and place-based approach complements and underpins the success of the broader industry transformation.
The submission also states that the Federal Government’s final roadmap and action plan should be based on honest cooperation between all tiers of government which encourages all parties to reduce their emissions. Appropriate responsibility and cost sharing is expected to serve as the foundation for long-term sustainability of transport emissions reduction, as the absence of such planning often results in the cost being transferred to local government.
The ALGA encouraged the government undertake a multi-pronged approach by adopting the ‘avoid-shift-improve’ approach. This method functions by the following principles:
- Avoid (also called reduce): making an effort to use none of or less of a resource
- Shift (also called maintain): switch from a less sustainable method of consumption to a more sustainable one
- Improve: increase the resource efficiency of an existing good or service
The ALGA advised the government to focus particularly on the ‘avoid’ and ‘shift’ portions, saying that policy makers are often too focused on ‘improve’, which can lead to inadequate outcomes.
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