The Time is Now for Action on Climate

Taryn Lane

The time is now for action on climate.

We have the community wide goal of net zero by 2030 under the banner of Hepburn ZNET – the key focus areas are agriculture, energy, transport, and waste, and ensuring our Wombat Forest remains the carbon sink that it is.

Hepburn Shire Council has its Sustainable Hepburn plan for council infrastructure that is integrated with the community goals of Hepburn Z-NET and also covers biodiversity and circular economy.

On the energy front we have firstly a once in a lifetime opportunity for a wealth transfer to occur away from energy companies and into homes via electrification and renewables. In the past 12 months we saw 4 MW of rooftop solar deployed in the Shire, with ward areas such as Holcombe and Cameron going from 24 and 26 percent of rooftops to 39 percent.

So, the work of now is largely a retrofit project.  Rooftop solar is now in aggregate the biggest energy player after coal and gas. We need all the homes that can to have rooftop solar. We need all the existing homes, regardless of solar, to be energy efficient, cheap to run, and as thermally comfortable as possible, resilient to fires, storms and floods. This will be supported by minimum standards for energy efficiency for rental homes under the state government and new 7-star minimum standards for new houses under the federal government. We need our existing local electricity grid to be smart and resilient – enabling us to use our hot water systems and our cars as batteries. We need money to be saved and kept in the local community.

For Hepburn Shire, as a small local government area with a tight budget, the only way to effectively get action on climate change is through community- council partnerships and collaboration with local groups. The Z-NET partnership has overseen more than $6.5 million in community value through bulk buys and energy efficiency programs since 2019. Another example is our Electrical Vehicle (EV) charging network in the Shire that now has four 100% community owned EV chargers by Hepburn Energy. This has come about through the partnership between Hepburn Energy, Hepburn Shire Council, Central Highlands Water and Chargefox.

This coming year it is anticipated that Hepburn Shire Council should reach zero net emissions for their infrastructure. This should allow an increased focus on supporting the community to reduce emissions, to protect and expand our biodiversity, and to promote circular economies. In addition, a key focus needs to be support for our farmers to continue reducing farm operational emissions, regenerate farmland and increase carbon sequestration.

In 2020 a big group of us gathered underneath the turbines to spell out 1.5 degrees in a human sign, as a symbol of the need to stay within a safe climate trajectory. We are now consistently breaching this temperature rise and are more in reach for 2-3 degrees.

In 40 years I hope we can look back at how everyone played an active part in reducing emissions, adapting to climate change and Caring for Country.

Taryn Lane is the General Manager of the local energy co-operative Hepburn Energy. Hepburn Energy supports the community towards the community-wide goal of zero-net emissions by 2030 through a range of community-based programs such as bulk buys and energy efficiency.  This is a summary of Taryn’s Lightning Talk relating to Climate, which was presented at the ‘Future Hepburn Forum’ in early August.