Shepparton should take note of Sydney and learn from Melbourne

Lessons for Shepparton from Sydney - 
Mayor Sydney, Clover Moore on the roof
of Sydney Town Hall with solar panels.

The City of Sydney is preparing to replicate a Melbourne scheme under which the council, businesses and residents would group together to sponsor renewable energy projects outside the city boundaries.

In its latest environmental action plan, to be endorsed by council on Monday night, Clover Moore's City of Sydney outlines a number of strengthened environmental targets.

‘We won't reach the target just by doing solar installation, so we also need to help people understand how they can buy green power that's beyond the city boundaries’ - Chris Derksema, City of Sydney's sustainability manager.

The strategy also marks a change of emphasis in the City's approach to environmental policy, with less focus on sponsoring Melbourne City schemes and more on encouraged renewable energy projects.

"You don't give up your target because you have met a blockage here or a blockage there," said Cr Moore, who faces a tough re-election vote in September.

Read The Sydney Morning Herald story - “Clover Moore's City of Sydney boosts climate targets, plans to sponsor projects.”

(The City of Greater Shepparton has rejected ideas to bring Melbourne City Council’s manager of urban sustainability, Ian Shears, to the area and share the dais with the professor of Environment and Planning at the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, Michael Buxton, who recently led and completed a major study on the peri-urban areas of Victoria’s regional towns and cities – Robert McLean).