Eurobodalla Shire Council

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this plan. Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Eurobodalla is a challenge that faces us all and requires urgent action.

Careful measurements have clearly shown the extent to which greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere have built up since the Industrial Revolution. Coastwatchers therefore requests that the word "seem" be deleted from the phrase "..greenhouse gases seem to have increased.." in Section 2.1 paragraph 2.

We commend Council's membership of the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) program and completion of Milestone 3 of the framework. Coastwatchers particularly congratulates Council on endorsing the vision of "50/50 by 2020" put forward by the community.

Current Emissions

Council states that 2012 was chosen as the Corporate and Community forecast year because it is the end of the first reporting period of the Kyoto protocol. Why then were the Corporate and Community base years not also chosen to align with the Kyoto agreement which set targets based on a reduction of 1990 emission levels?

Tourism greatly increases Eurobodalla's population during the summer months. It is not clear in the Draft Plan whether or not this impact on Community emissions are accounted for. Was the census data used the estimated resident population for a summer month or the enumeration data collected at Census date (a winter month)? Coastwatchers requests clarification on this point.

Does the figure for the Community industrial baseline emissions include emissions from forestry practices and general agriculture, including livestock management, in the Shire?