Did you know we have climate change deniers on Lane Cove Council?

Have you heard of a passive climate change denier? These are people who say they believe that human activity is causing climate change. BUT then they refuse to support initiatives to do anything about it, or even work actively to block action.

It’s really a form of gaslighting and is very common among Australian politicians.

Sadly, we don’t just have passive climate change deniers on the current Lane Cove Council. We also have a couple of out and proud active deniers. And they’re running again in the December election.

Liberal Councillors Scott Bennisson and David Brooks Horn have both gone on the record in council meetings to express that they don’t believe in human induced climate change.

They both announced this at the meeting where the Lane Cove Climate Emergency resolution was passed in September 2019. They even threw some very dubious (easily scientifically dismissable) graphs in to show why they think it’s rubbish.

But they aren’t the only problem. A number of other councillors have voted with them as a bloc against emissions reductions strategies and other sustainability measures.

Climate change denial is scarily common at council

There’ve been a couple of examples of how active and passive climate change denial has played out during the current council term. One was when councillors voted in October 2020 against procuring 100% renewable energy for council facilities - something that has been enacted at many councils across Australia. 

On Monday 20 September 2021, Lane Cove Council will vote again on whether the council should move to source energy for council facilities from 100% renewable sources. This would kick in when their current contract expires in July 2022. It would ensure that there was a fixed price long term contract in place until 2030.

I urge you to write to your councillors today to tell them that this is something that council needs to support. Find their contact details here.

The original motion to procure 100% renewable energy for all council facilities was originally put to council by Councillors Zbik and Vissel. I put in a submission supporting the motion. 

Councillors Brooks-Horn, Bennison, Palmer, Strassberg and Brent voted against the motion. You can see the minutes here.

The argument given by one of the councillors for voting against the original motion was that “Council only accounts for 2% of Lane Cove's emissions.”

If we all thought that way, nothing would change. There’s a great quote that I think applies in this: “Individually, we are but grains of sand, but together we make a beach.” We ALL need to work to combat the climate crisis. Every bit counts.

Adopting 100% renewable energy for council facilities isn’t a revolutionary position to take

As the council papers mention for the September 2021 motion, Lane Cove Council is one of 24 councils participating in the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) Tender for the Supply of Electricity and Renewable Energy. Over two thirds of participating councils in the (SSROC) Tender process have stated they wish to utilise 100% renewable energy. 

It’s all part of important moves to help transition NSW to Net Zero emissions.

A number of councils around NSW have already made the move to 100% renewable energy procurement, including City of Sydney, Northern Beaches Council and City of Newcastle. For a traditional coal city, City of Newcastle’s move is particularly to be applauded.

In Lane Cove, since the original October 2020 100% renewable energy motion was voted down, a Climate Resilience Strategy Plan has been adopted by council. One of the key strategies within it is for council to move to 100% renewable energy when procuring energy supply contracts. 

But as the record shows, not all of our councillors believe this is important.

Certain Councillors’ opposition to 100% renewable energy doesn’t appear to be based on any financial imperative either - it is purely ideological. 

As the September 2021 motion outlines: “The cost of electricity is a standard recurrent cost reflected in Council’s annual budget. The introduction of a long-term fixed price contract on Council’s largest utility cost will provide considerable cash flow management benefit particularly when recognising much of Council’s revenue is also on a fixed rate basis. Indicative Stage 1 pricing provided by SSROC (under confidential cover) that for 100% renewable energy in the upcoming tender, suggests a cost to Council of less than 1% on a worst-case scenario basis.”

The Climate Resilience Strategy Plan is a big step in the right direction.

I wrote a submission to council in support of it.

However, not everyone thinks so. The June 2021 motion to adopt it was voted against by our resident climate deniers and Liberals:

Councillors Bennison and Brooks-Horn. 

It’s crucial for our community that council now sticks to what has been adopted within that plan. But based on their track record, these councillors will do everything to block it.

Did you know: the Climate Emergency declaration almost didn’t happen

The other major recent example of climate change denial in council chambers was when Lane Cove Council declared a Climate Emergency.

It’s fantastic that this happened. It’s now being used to argue for the adoption of a number of measures across council.

What you probably didn’t hear was that:

• The Climate Emergency motion wasn’t initiated by councillors

• The original motion was drastically edited to take the urgency out of it

The motion to declare a climate emergency was driven by a team of dedicated locals: Corinne Fisher and myself with help from Sjirk Bagma and others from the Lane Cove Sustainability Action Group.

 Which is why myself and my peers who put the motion together were extremely disappointed when the councillor who we entrusted with putting it forward changed the target dates in it without telling us.

Rather than aiming for zero emissions from Lane Cove Council by 2025 or 2030 - they said 2050. 

 As your elected councillor, I would move to bring this target forward. 

Councils are important in tackling emissions

 Lane Cove Council loves to announce that they voted for the Climate Emergency declaration as a sign of how progressive they are. But declaring a climate emergency isn’t a symbolic act. While it’s an important act of leadership for the broader community, it’s meant to be tethered to the creation of tangible outcomes to lower emissions - urgently.

I know that the local Liberal party opposition to climate action is NOT supported by the majority of our Lane Cove community. We need councillors that represent our community on council.

Councils in Australia are leading the way on climate action and building the climate emergency declaration movement. In 2016, Darebin Council in Victoria was the first government in the world to formally recognise we face a climate emergency. Now over 1800 government of all levels, including the United Nations, have formally recognised we face a climate emergency.

Councils can undertake a number of practical initiatives to support their local residential and business community to achieve emission reductions.

As your elected councillor I would ensure that decisions made by council reflect the Climate Resilience Strategy Plan, and the urgent need to reduce emissions on all levels of government.

It can’t operate as a symbolic document - it needs concrete action plans with dates to ladder from it. It needs to be a document with a presence in council chambers and factored into the many decisions that council makes.

If climate action is important to you, make sure you vote for me at the 4 December election!