Environmentalists applauded Sydney City after it officially proclaimed a “climate emergency.”
Councillors voted for a motion by Lord Mayor Clover Moore on Monday night, stating climate change poses a severe threat to Sydneysiders.
“Successive federal governments have shamefully presided over a climate disaster, and now we are at a critical juncture – we face a climate emergency”.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Sydney.
The mayoral minute urged the federal government to react urgently to the emergency by reintroducing a carbon price and setting up a body to assist transition employees from fossil fuel industries to alternative jobs.
Sydney is the recent council to declare a climate emergency after London, Auckland, Vancouver, and hundreds of other global cities.
“Transferring all of our investments into non-fossil fuel funds is a moral act but also a financially prudent one, we join a long list of organisations around the world that are making this environmental statement.”
-Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne
Greenpeace Australia said it welcomed the move on Tuesday, labeling it as a courageous management demonstration.
Sydney City said in 2007 it was the first carbon-neutral council in the country.
“The global movement of climate emergency declarations coming from a local level proves that change is coming, and it’s coming from the ground up.”
Deputy Director Nic Seton, Greenpeace Australia
It will use 100% renewable power by next year and plans to fulfill its 2030 emission reduction target of 70% six years early in 2024.
The Inner West Council became the first in NSW to be 100% divested from fossil fuels earlier this month.
Image: City of Sydney.
