Conversation Caravan worked with the City of Melbourne to consult with community members living, working or visiting Melbourne on its draft Climate Change Mitigation Strategy to 2050. The purpose of the project was to discuss how the City of Melbourne can better prepare for and mitigate Climate Change. Conversation Caravan spoke with 654 people across 11 locations, the discussions focused on four key themes:
- Zero Emissions Buildings
- 100% Renewable Energy
- Zero Emissions Transport
- Reduce Impact of Waste
Consultation on these four themes considered the proposed actions by the City of Melbourne as well as the individual actions and barriers experienced. Data collected from the community will be used by the project team to strengthen its Strategy and work in this area.
Analysis of the data demonstrated that participants in the engagement already take action to reduce their waste, recycle or make efforts to reuse. They prefer active and public transport, actively monitor their energy use and try to source renewable energy. Participants face many obstacles in trying to mitigate their impact on climate change such as restrictions placed on renters and apartment owners by landlords and body corporates, when trying to modify the environmental performance of buildings; required financial investment to consider energy saving modifications; safety concerns and inconvenience around active transport; lack of understanding about recycling and renewable energy products; and a lack of organic waste infrastructure for household composting.
Many suggestions and insights were generated for Council’s consideration, among them:
- Reviewing planning controls around design and operation of new buildings.
- Incentivising renewable energy generation and energy saving measures.
- Reducing the number of cars in the CBD.
- Prioritising active and public transport.
- Making improvements to collection of green waste and education around recycling.
Read the findings of these conversations in the Community Engagement Summary here.
The Climate Change Mitigation Strategy to 2050 is due to go to Council in the coming months. Keep an eye out for the this project here.
Thank you to everyone that participated in the project either at a pop up or online. Your feedback was invaluable to the project.
