Why has Council prepared this Draft Policy and Strategy?

Council created a Climate and Sustainability Policy to outline our vision and commitments for building climate resilience for our city. As an extension of this our Zero Emissions Shellharbour Strategy details the pathway we will take to achieve our net zero targets.

Our net zero targets are all about doing our part on a local level to contribute to the Paris agreement. In December 2015, Australia along with 196 other nations signed the Paris Agreement (a legally binding international treaty to address and reduce the impacts of climate change by limiting global warming).

Countries including Australia agreed to work together to ensure that global greenhouse gas emissions would hit a peak as soon as possible and then not increase further. Each nation will contribute to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 (a carbon-neutral world).

Our net zero greenhouse gas emissions targets are:

• Net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 for Council operations.
• Net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 for the city.