Newcastle Climate Action Summit

It's a wrap and feedback required!

That's it for the Newcastle Climate Action Summit. Saturday 18th November 2023

Many thanks to also to our Sponsors Vikki Brooke and City of Newcastle and Summit Partners Climate Action Newcastle, Newcastle Climate Change Response and Hunter Community Alliance, together with our many hardworking volunteers for making this happen. Thank you for attending - we hope you enjoyed this summit to take action on reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Newcastle, NSW. Presentations will be loaded onto the website shortly for your perusal.

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Newcastle Climate Action Summit

Saturday 18 November 2023

Proudly Supported by City of Newcastle

Are you a community, business, industry, local government or public sector group that is keen to act to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions in Newcastle to tackle the effects climate change?

The Newcastle Climate Action Summit was held at Newcastle City Hall on Saturday 18 November 2023.

The summit brought together diverse organisations to develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Newcastle. This is the first city-wide strategy with emission reduction actions for transport and waste, households, commerce and industry.

In a context where a wide spectrum of voices are now talking about the issue of climate change as an emergency, attendees heared from local scientific, policy experts and advocates, and had the opportuntity to have their voice heard on ways to come together across sectors and interests to address this threat.

The Summit was a very interactive day, with small group discussions, table talks, speakers and workshops. The summit sought to hear directly from attendees. This included asking:

What actions do individuals and/or their organisation consider the highest priority to rapidly reduce Newcastle’s Greenhouse gas emissions?
How can our city play its part in the national and global effort?

What great initiatives are being developed or being implemented?
What else is necessary?

Convened by a coalition of community groups Climate Action Newcastle and Newcastle Climate Change Response, together with many other participating and supporting organisations including Hunter Community Alliance, the inaugural Newcastle Climate Action Summit aimed to:

Engender the active involvement of large numbers of community members and leaders, including business, industry and all levels of government
Bring together diverse communities who have not participated in developing climate plans: young people; Aboriginal community members; culturally and linguistically diverse community members; people with disability
Create increased awareness and commitment to the reduction of GHG emissions (e.g. businesses, council and other stakeholders committing to specific actions with measurable impact)
Present emission reduction strategies for transport, waste, household, commercial and industrial sectors developed as part of the Newcastle Emission Reduction Plan project.
Gain feedback from the public and key stakeholders on emission reduction strategies through Table Talks.
Develop a comprehensive plan to reduce GHG emissions in Newcastle
Facilitate the combining of forces in multiple ways to forward Newcastle's response to bringing Australia's emission reduction commitments in line with what is required to arrest the worst effects of climate change; and
Build the local response to addressing the reduction of GHG emissions in the short term, that is, within the next 10 years.

The Summit was an opportunity for representatives to showcase their climate plans and action, facilitate conversation about a collective vision, and establish a formal partnership and collaborative approach to tackling the climate crisis.

Representation was sought from the following groups:

Transport: Transport industry, Freight and Logisitics, Public Transport, Active Transport and E-mobility advocates, public transport companies; Transport for NSW; Rail, Tram and Bus Union, Automative Advocacy organisations, Electric Vehicle Advocacy organisations, Travel Industry
Industry: Industry and Manufacturing companies, Consultative committees, Chemical companies, Cement Production, Metal Manufactures, Refrigeration companies
Residential: Tenants Advocacy, Social Housing providers and advocates, Town Planners,
Commercial: Businesses, Small-medium enterprises, chambers of commerce, business improvement associations
Waste: Waste and resource recovery managers, Waste to energy advocates, Private waste companies, Foodbanks, Supermarkets.

Summit Outcomes

The Newcastle Climate Summit held at City Hall on Saturday 18 November 2023 was the launchpad for the city's first city-wide plan to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions.

During the day, approximately 100 participants representing industry, government and community proposed and prioritised actions to halve Newcastle's Greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Actions proposed included:
Waste

Implement Food organics garden organics (FOGO) collection
Hybrid Organics processing facility (Composting and Biogas)
Measure and report on Fugitive (methane) emissions from landfill
Development Approval (DA) requirement for builders & construction to have a waste reduction/ management plan.
Improve fugitive emissions and gas capture.
Education and behaviour change to reduce waste.

Transport

Newcastle Cyclesafe strategy
Modal targets
Improve public transport
Multi-modal choices and incentives
Implementation of Multi-modal hubs

Industrial

Mandatory public reporting scope 1, 2, 3 emissions
Local Community Dashboard - break-down by type
Mandatory public reporting emission reduction targets
2030 target: 50% reduction - from 2018/2020 baseline
Avoid carbon leakage ….. Carbon Border Adjustment
Forum to Share Techniques on reducing emissions

Residential

Improve the energy efficiency of new and existing homes to reduce energy consumption and reduce energy bills
Electrify homes by moving away from gas as an energy source and use energy efficient electric appliances for heating and cooling, hot water and cooking
Switch to 100% renewable power
Install rooftop solar PV to provide cheap renewable power
Install home batteries to store energy or utilise bi-directional charging from EVs
Community education & resources AND champions; starting at primary school
Home energy audit services
Revise Planning Controls
Advocate to state and federal government for other regulatory changes
Rebates, incentives and low-cost finance
Sinking funds for strata & rental properties
Star rating for existing properties
Shared community batteries & projects for low income households

Commercial

Raise awareness in the business community of the scale of commercial emissions and the importance of making reductions
Provide education and relevant resources with a focus on the practical aspects of how to reduce commercial CO2 emissions
Provide ‘business energy audit’ services
Update Council controlled regulations that would result in a reduction in commercial emissions.
Advocate for other regulatory changes
Provide access to rebates, incentives and low cost finance
Group purchase of renewable energy
“ShoreBet”: Bet = Business Energy Transformation. Package for small business.
‘Green strip’ shopping strips in suburbs.
One-stop shop for all energy efficiency, electrification & transition to renewables support & advice.
Energy efficiency & electrification in sectors with large asset holdings.
‘De-gassing’ of restaurants & similar users.

At the close of the Summit the majority of attendees agreed to sign up to the Newcastle Emission Reduction Charter and be part of the Newcastle Emission Reduction Alliance. The charter is a collaborative agreement to work towards a net zero for Newcastle, NSW. For more details see below.

Summit Speakers

Summit Speakers - Click on the images below to access speaker abstracts, biographies, and presentations (where available).

Listed Speakers and Presentation Topics

Summit Speakers

Alec Roberts - Newcastle Emission Reduction Plan
Aunty Therese - Welcome to Country
Dr Ben Ewald - CycleSafe Network
Cr Dr Elizabeth Adamczyk - Introduction for City of Newcastle - Climate Programs
Dr Heather Stevens - City of Newcastle's Environment Strategy & Climate Action Plan
Jacquie Svenson - Industry Emissions in Newcastle LGA
Jeremy Leibman - Transport Modal shift
Dr Kevin Sweeney - Strategies to reduce residential emissions
Leah Stevens - Public Transport
Dr Lou Johnston - Host
Marnie Kikken - City of Newcastle's Environment Strategy & Climate Action Plan
Nathan Clements - Training, transition and solidarity
Dr Richard Finlay-Jones - Newcastle Offshore Wind
Trish Doyle MP - Trish will make an address on behalf of Minister Sharpe

Summit Program

Please find the Summit Program below for viewing and download

summit_program_for_participants.pdf
File Size:	123 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Summit Venue

Newcastle City Hall
290 King St, Newcastle NSW

As one of our city's most iconic heritage buildings, Newcastle City Hall speaks volumes of our proud past and who we are as a city. Opened in 1929, it is one of Newcastle’s most prestigious buildings and the heart of historic Civic Precinct. The Concert Hall features excellent natural acoustics, superior lighting and comfortable lower and upper gallery seating. City Hall has six function rooms and provides a great option for large conference groups.
Newcastle City Hall is only 20 minutes from Newcastle Airport and near a range of public transport options.

The "Concert Hall" will host the main summit, with "Mulubinba Room" and "Cummings Room" used for "Table Talks" (Workshops), Morning, Lunch and Afternoon teas. The "Concert Hall" will also host the "Table Talks".

Our Sponsors and Supporters

We would like to thank the generous support of Vicki Brooke, and the City of Newcastle. Thanks also to Hunter Community Alliance, CLEANaS and Hunter Innovation and Science Hub for their support.

Newcastle Emission Reduction Charter and Alliance

The Newcastle Emission Reduction Charter is a collaborative agreement to work towards a net zero for Newcastle, NSW, with the target to achieve at least a 50% reduction by 2030. The charter includes committing to working collaboratively, setting carbon targets, monitoring and reporting progress, and developing and adopting road map and action plans to meet set target(s). The new Newcastle Emissions Reduction Alliance will involve those organisations gathered at the Summit as well as enabling a wider range of stakeholders to play their part in cutting Newcastle’s carbon footprint to zero. By agreeing to join the Alliance, organisations and individuals will be supporting the ambition of achieving the emission target. The Alliance will be governed by a steering committee which will include representatives from community, business, industry and government (in particularly City of Newcastle).

At the close of the summit all participants and organisations were asked to endorse the charter and join the Alliance.
The majority of attendees and/or their organisations agreed to be part .

Read the document here or download below.

newcastle_emission_reduction_alliance_and_charter.pdf
File Size:	90 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Aim for Real Zero and Don’t Settle for Net Zero

The Newcastle Climate Summit framing is ‘Real Zero’. Many organisations have set ‘Net Zero’ targets which allow creative carbon accounting: promising that today’s carbon overspend will be paid off by future generations through expensive and as-yet unproven (at scale) negative emissions technologies. For us ‘Net Zero’ can imply inaction and the privileging of emissions for sectors, which has huge equity implications. Our focus is on how to reduce emissions from Transport, Waste, Industry, Business and Households to ‘Real Zero’ to prevent catastrophic climate change.

For more information..

Focus on Climate Mitigation rather than Climate Adaptation

As climate change is now a clear and present danger to our society and the natural world, both mitigation and adaptation are now necessary. However, the less we choose to mitigate today, the more adaptation we’ll need later and the less effective adaptation will become and the greater the divide will be between those that can afford adaptation and those that cannot (Rojas, 2019).

The focus of this Summit is working to address the root cause of the problem of climate change through Climate Mitigation rather than dealing with its effects. It is suggested that a separate parallel process be initiated to plan cross-sectoral climate adaptation actions with a focus on inclusivity and flexible approach within Newcastle.
For more information...

With emission reduction, count what doesn’t get counted

In total GHG emissions that can be linked to Newcastle LGA there are a large number of emissions that are not included in the total measured GHG emissions such as in the Newcastle 2020/21 municipal emissions snapshot from the Snapshot community climate tool (Ironbark Sustainability and Beyond Zero Emissions, 2022). All GHG emissions need to be reduced, not only those quantified as being Newcastle LGA emissions.
For example total measured Newcastle LGA emissions are equivalent to only 0.5% of emissions resulting from the use of exported coal from Newcastle Port which equates to around 400 Mt CO2-e emissions per annum. Putting it more starkly the emissions resulting from the export of coal through Newcastle Port are roughly equivalent to the total measured GHG emissions for Australia (401.4 Mt CO2-e for 2020/21) (Ironbark Sustainability and Beyond Zero Emissions, 2022). Such figures underlie the heavy importance of curtailing the export of coal from Newcastle to address effective GHG emission reduction in combating the effects of climate change.

For more information...

It's a wrap and feedback required!