Climate Change and Energy

This section contains information about climate change and energy.

Our Changing Climate

Greenhouse gases trap the sun's heat in the atmosphere and assist in the maintenance of the earth's temperature. While this greenhouse effect is natural, human activities have increased its intensity, resulting in global warming and climate change impacts. Burning of fossil fuels for electricity, consumption of petrol based fuels for transport and landfilling waste all contribute to the release of greenhouse gases.

Climate change projections indicate that the Liverpool City area will become warmer, with more hot days and fewer cold nights. Extreme temperatures will become more severe and droughts will be more frequent and last longer. There will be less rainfall overall, but storm rainfall intensities will become more intense and the sea level will rise, increasing flood risks. The risk of serious bush fires will grow. Hail storms, and possibly wind storms, are projected to become more severe. These can all place human life, property and natural ecosystems at increased risk.

Further information regarding Climate Change can be found at the following websites:

Energy Conservation - Community

There are many ways that you can improve your energy efficiency and reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.

For further information see NSW Office of Environment & Heritage or Your Home.

Energy Conservation - Council

There are many ways Council can improve energy efficiency and reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Management Plan

The Energy Management Plan (EMP) is a four-year strategic plan that, once fully implemented, has the potential to save over 2,051 Megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity, 5,466 gigajoules (GJ) of natural gas and 2,604 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) emissions each year from Council's activities.

Under the Energy Management Plan Council has:

  • Completed energy audits of its top 14 energy using sites.
  • Developed a list of 128 key recommendations for reducing energy consumption over the next four years.
  • Identified over $348,900 of savings to be made each year through the implementation of retrofit actions.

You can download a copy of the 2012 Energy Management Plan here

Sustainable Transport

Australia has one of the highest vehicle ownership rates in the world, with 614 registered vehicles per 1,000 people. Car ownership rates have risen from 8.6 million registered vehicles in 1985 to 10.9 million in 1996 (Source: From Motor Vehicle Census - Australian Bureau of Statistics).

Each year in Australia, 175 billion kilometres are driven equating to 23 billion litres of fuel and releasing about 63 million tonnes of greenhouse gases and other pollutants (Source: ICLEI - Cities for Climate Protection Australia).

For more information on sustainable transport: