What Has The Climate Council Ever Done For Us?
On Tuesday 28th May, I attended the Climate Councils – Cities Power Partnership Roundtable, hosted by Bathurst City Council at the spiritual home of motorsport in Australia – Mount Panorama, Bathurst. This was attended by councils near and far who are also members of the Climate Councils - Cities Power Partnership, which is a program to link like-minded councils together to share success stories, ideas and the power to bulk purchase.
As this was being hosted at Mount Panorama, several EVs were on hand to take the attendees for a lap of the iconic street circuit before the formalities of the day started. For me it was his first time visiting the track and also the first time in a Tesla Model X, which is a little bigger than my current Nissan Leaf!
The speakers at the roundtable were from the Climate Council, ACT Government, NRMA and Bathurst City Council. Topics were focused around EV adoption, how and why the ACT Government nominated to switch to 100% Zero Emission Fleet by 2023, NRMA’s 40 rapid chargers across the state of NSW – which should service 90% of the state in the initial uptake of EVs - and what sustainability plans are for EV charging deployment in Bathurst. One of the best parts of the day by far was a robust conversation that took over the second half of the roundtable which everyone participated in. Overall this shows that councils who can see that the future contains Zero Emission Vehicles powered by renewables they produce are positioning themselves for the future.
The Roads Minister for the ACT Government also invited everyone in the room to consider joining them in a BULK fleet agreement, so as to drive down the cost, increase the volume of vehicles on the roads and create a future second hand EV market. For more details on this please email climatechange@act.gov.au.
If you are a council and would like to learn more about this, click Climate Councils - Cities Power Partnership
Footnote: Paul’s background is rooted in historic car racing and after purchasing his Nissan Leaf in 2016, this enabled him to get involved in lobbying the SA Government to secure the Formula E for the past 18 months and is co-leader of the All Electric Formula E Racing for Adelaide