Noosa councillor Brian Stockwell has been nominated to represent Queensland on the Strategic Advisory Board of Climate Emergency Australia.
Councillor Tom Wegener nominated Cr Stockwell at Council’s General Meeting on Monday saying he was the longest standing councillor and most knowledgeable in the field.
Cr Stockwell was pleased to be nominated for the position after working in the area for decades. He said two-third of emissions in the Noosa Shire emanated from Noosa landfill.
In his position on the advisory board he would endeavour to get higher levels of government to invest in finding solutions to landfill emissions, he said.
Noosa Council’s place on the advisory board results from it being the only Queensland local government to have declared a climate emergency.
In 2019, Noosa Council became one of 96 Australian local governments to do so. The group represent 8.66 million Australian residents.
Identifying the need for a consistent and coordinated response from local governments, Climate Emergency Australia (CEA) was coined at the National Climate Emergency Summit in Melbourne in February 2020. CEA is an alliance of local governments working together to have all levels of government acknowledge and respond to the climate emergency with urgency and based on scientific evidence.
CEA aims to support all councils to share knowledge, resources and to work together to achieve the common goal of effectively responding to the climate emergency from both a Council and community perspective.
A Strategic Advisory Group will guide the work of CEA during the 12-month start-up period following its initiation, and act as the voice of the group.
A CEA spokeswoman told Council’s Planning and Environment Meeting last week the Council’s representative would be required to participate in online meetings about once a month but no financial contribution was required from Noosa Council.
Council’s representative on the advisory board will be ratified at its Ordinary Meeting.
