Program to help councils supercharge climate action

The Cities Power Partnership and Ironbark Sustainability have joined forces to launch an Australian program that will enable local governments to make evidence-based decisions when investing in emissions reduction projects.

The pilot program uses the Cities Activity Database (CAD), Ironbark Sustainability’s tool, that categorises data from about 13,000 climate activities from more than 800 cities worldwide, and helps users find the most popular, cost-effective or highest impact solutions for their council area.

“Councils manage a huge amount of infrastructure, transport and other sectors that consume a lot of energy and produce a lot of emissions,” said Ironbark Sustainability Business Manager, Alexi Lynch.

“As councils ramp up their emissions reduction ambitions, CAD takes the guesswork out of which projects to invest in for the highest impact — saving councils time and money. It’s a really powerful way for councils to ensure their climate action planning is the most impactful for the communities they serve.”

Director of the Cities Power Partnership, Dr Portia Odell said the pilot program presented an exciting opportunity for Australian cities and towns to supercharge their climate action by drawing on the learning of hundreds of global cities and towns.

“Local governments are a critical part of Australia’s climate solution and we hope the highly individualised and data-driven information provided through our new partnership with Ironbark will further accelerate our members’ local emission reduction efforts,” Dr Odell said.

Councils that join the Cities Power Partnership by 31 October 2021 can participate in the pilot program and will be provided with a report on emissions reduction projects for their council area.

The report insights will be based on actions that similar cities and towns had taken, as well as the effectiveness, carbon reduction potential, probability of success and costs of potential projects.

Participating councils will be asked to provide feedback to enable the Cities Power Partnership and Ironbark to further develop and scale similar tools for the benefit of councils throughout Australia.

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