Climate Change

By: Mike Ritchie, MRA Consulting Group In 2019, Australia’s environment ministers and the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) agreed to the National Waste Policy and Action Plan (NWPAP). For the first time, all Governments were committing to collective action on recycling, waste management and the creation of a more Circular Economy. Our governments finally agreed […]

The NSW EPA has released the draft Climate Change Policy and Action Plan that aims to set the framework for halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (from 2005 levels), zeroing emissions by 2050, and improving NSW’s resilience to climate change impacts.

I wish landfills were net carbon sinks that we could rely on to store organics. Landfills are significant GHG emitters. They sequester some carbon but not enough.

Australia generates 61.5 MT of “core” waste. Of this, 20.5 MT is sent to landfill.

I am glad that Local Government has levers that can reduce emissions and slow climate change.

The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports paint a grim picture of the impacts of climate change and the pervasive lack of substantive action to combat it.

The COP26 climate change summit took place between 31 October and 13 November 2021 in Glasgow. The reason we needed this summit is that we are very efficient at pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but singularly useless at getting it back out again.

The COP26 climate change summit took place between 31 October and 13 November 2021 in Glasgow. The reason we needed this summit is that we are very efficient at pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but singularly useless at getting it back out again.

For more than ten years, MRA has been arguing for an “Organics Revolution” in Australia to remove organics from landfill.

The single biggest greenhouse gas emissions decision you will make as Mayor, is “Are we still sending organic waste to landfill?”

There is only one technology that we know of that can reliably suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequester it. Photosynthesis. It is what every plant on the planet does every day.

The waste and recycling industry contributes close to 3% of Australia’s direct emissions. However, recycling abates much more by capturing the embodied energy of the recovered materials. We can create a more sustainable Australia by reducing emissions, increasing recycling and growing new green jobs.