Logan City council has voted to join a newly established climate change alliance, following what one councillor called “the longest debate over $20,000 I’ve seen in quite some time”.
The South East Queensland Climate Resilience Alliance has already seen commitment from multiple other councils, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Lockyer Valley, Ipswich, Noosa and Moreton Bay.
The aim of the alliance is to enable councils to leverage larger pools of funding, work collaboratively on projects and find solutions to climate change.
This could include bulk buying community batteries, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, calculation of community emissions and funding education campaigns.
But last week at the City Planning, Economic Development and Environment meeting, several councillors questioned the $20,000 per year membership cost.
Each council pays a different amount based on its city’s population, with Brisbane contributing the most and Lockyer Valley the least, to create a larger pool of funding for the alliance.
Some councillors, such as mayor Darren Power, Cr Hall and Cr Jacob Heremaia, were worried the alliance would benefit certain councils over others.
They suggested council stayed out of the alliance and reassessed sometime in the future once it had “proven its merit”.
“This council is exceptional in this particular category,” Cr Power said.
“We have a net zero program happening at the water treatment plant, we have a biochar facility, we have methane gas extraction at the Browns Plains tip, we have electric vehicles, we have solar panels everywhere – we are progressing beyond all the other local authorities towards net zero.
“I struggle to realise why we should be a part of this when we are so far advanced.”
Cr Tim Frazer, on the other hand, was worried council would “miss out” on important projects and opportunities to save money in the long term if it didn’t join the alliance.
Cr Mindy Russell said collaboration was good, despite some councils not doing it well.
“We can’t address climate resilience alone as a city on its own – it’s actually the whole planet that needs to be working on it together – so I’ll be supporting this comparatively minimal investment,” she said.
Ultimately, council voted in favour of joining the alliance.
Seven councillors voted ‘for’, two voted ‘against’, and four voted to ‘abstain’.
