FAQs

Sustainability consists of fulfilling the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future generations, while ensuring a balance between economic growth, environmental care and social well-being.

According to the United Nations, climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

Burning fossil fuels generates carbon emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.

Sources of carbon emissions include driving vehicles fuelled by petrol, diesel or gas; coal or gas fired electricity generation; disposing of our waste to landfill; and clearing land and forests.

Source: United Nations (n.d)

Climate change is already impacting local weather patterns, with extreme weather events becoming more common. These include:

• Heat waves
• Reduced annual rainfall
• Intense storms, leading to storm damage and flash flooding
• Greater bushfire risk
• Inundation of low-lying land adjacent to the Canning River, due to rising sea levels 

These changes in weather patterns can have the following impacts on our local Canning community:

• Reduced water availability
• Damaged property and infrastructure
• Increased insurance costs
• Reduced variety of food that we currently have available to us, as well as increased prices 
• Power outages and loss of essential services
• Impacts to the health and accessibility of our natural areas such as the Canning River and native bushland
• Impacts to the physical and mental health and well-being of our community

Everyone will be affected by climate change, however there are parts of our community who might be more at risk than others. These include:

• People on low incomes
• Children and young people
• Elderly people
• People with chronic health conditions

Taking action to address climate change is a shared global responsibility, including for local governments. Councils are on the forefront of responding to the impacts of climate change in the community. The City is responsible for setting targets to reduce emissions for its operations and managing the risks of climate change to its assets (parks, buildings, road infrastructure) and service delivery (waste operations, community events, libraries). Local governments are also best placed to provide information to the community for building resilience and increasing adaptive capacity to the impacts of climate change.

The City of Canning has developed a Roadmap to Net Zero for the City’s operations. The Roadmap has assessed the City’s operational carbon footprint, and provides a clear and actionable carbon reduction pathway to achieve net zero emissions for the City’s operations by 2030.

The City of Canning is developing this new and ambitious Climate Change and Energy Transformation Strategy so that, together with our community, we can take strong action on climate change and create a thriving, sustainable and climate resilient Canning.

To date the City has undertaken various projects to reduce organisational energy consumption and carbon emissions as well as providing programs that support our community to do the same. Further information on what the City is implementing to reduce carbon emissions is included on our website here.

The City of Canning’s Strategic Community Plan 2021-2031 has identified a priority theme for our community as Enhance: Our environment, sustainability and awareness with a key objective to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and optimise the use of natural resources and proactively respond to the impacts of climate change. The 2021 Community Perceptions Survey identified that sustainable practices to combat climate change is in the top four priorities for the Canning community.

The development of the Climate Change and Energy Transformation Strategy aims to secure a healthy, resilient, net zero carbon future that reduces future climate risks and unlocks inclusive and sustainable growth.

The City of Canning is aspiring to reach net zero emissions for our operations by 2030, but we also need your help to create a shared vision for a climate resilient and sustainable community. It’s a vision of what we would like to see the City of Canning look like in many years from now, as we respond to our changing climate – and what actions we can take across the next 10 years to achieve this vision.

Your input now will help shape the priorities in the City of Canning’s Climate Change and Energy Transformation Strategy and our vision for a climate resilient and net zero carbon future.

Net zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. We reach net zero when the amount we add is no more than the amount taken away.

Think of it like a set of scales: producing greenhouse gas emissions tips the scales, and we want to get those scales back into balance, which means no more greenhouse gas can be added to the atmosphere in any given year than is taken out.