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Published Mar 12 2007 by Maunsell Australia, Archived Mar 21 2007

Brisbane City Council report on Climate Change and Energy

by Ian Lowe, Jim McKnoulty et al.

Brisbane City Council (BCC) convened a Climate Change and Energy Taskforce in August 2006 to advise Council on preparing the city for climate change and peak oil. The ‘Final Report – A Call for Action’ (5Mb pdf) represents the work of the Taskforce and its recommendations to Council, and following is an extract from its Synopsis.

This Report is a First Step

The report is intended as a first step in the process of identifying the possible impacts and responses of climate change on the city of Brisbane. It provides Council with a platform to consider and develop policy and determine appropriate actions. Community input will be a vital part of future steps towards action on climate change in Brisbane. The report provides a vehicle to foster public debate and education, which is an essential step in determining and setting policies and strategies to address climate change.

As a city which has a sub-tropical climate and is situated on both a river and a coastline, Brisbane could expect to be susceptible to and experience a range of impacts from climate change including higher temperatures, drought, larger storm surges, gusting winds and bushfires. As oil prices climb due to the peaking of oil production, Brisbane will experience social and economic consequences due to its reliance on oil for both personal mobility and freight movement. In addition, Brisbane is a high per capita emitter of greenhouse gases compared to world cities and therefore will be affected by global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as emissions trading.

Brisbane Can Gain Economically by Responding to Climate Change and Peak Oil

The Taskforce has identified that Brisbane’s response to these challenges may actually provide
economic opportunities for the city (e.g. through developing sustainable industries such as
manufacturing of water-efficient technologies) and that the city will be able to save money by planning now to adapt to these future challenges.

The Taskforce has Analysed Risks and Presented Solutions

The Taskforce’s analysis included the development of a scenario of Brisbane in 2030 to demonstrate how climate change may impact on the city and how actions that are put in place now may help to manage these impacts.

The report includes some 31 recommendations across eight strategy areas including leadership and partnering, decision making, communication, planning, sustainable transport, preparedness for change, diversification of natural resources and research. The Taskforce commends these recommendations for consideration and further exploration by Brisbane City Council.

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The Taskforce comprised:
• Professor Ian Lowe, President of the Australian Conservation Foundation (Chairperson of the
Taskforce)
• Jim McKnoulty, Chairman of Conics Ltd. and President of Greening Australia
• John McEvory, Managing Director, Peron Group
• Petrice Derrington, Chief Executive Officer, Campus Living (retired from Taskforce)
• Scott Losee, Principal Consultant – Sustainability, Maunsell Australia Pty. Ltd.
Derrington).

Editorial Notes

The report is generally pretty good, providing amongst other things a long list of recommendations usefully ranked by priority, cost, and timing. One benefit of reading such documents is being reminded of the many fronts on which progress can be made.

But the basics of peak oil are garbled:

The term ‘peak oil’ comes from the work done in the 1960s by an American geophysicist Marion King Hubbert who came up with a theory based on the notion that the amount of oil under the ground is finite. In the mid-1950s, Hubbert used statistical analysis to predict that US oil production would peak in the early 1970s, changing the balance between buyers and sellers on the world market.
His predictions were criticised by most economists, who believed that scarcity would always drive up prices and bring new supplies on stream. When the so-called 1973 ‘oil crisis’ began, Hubbert’s theory about peak oil production was confirmed; however some economists still do not accept the theory (see Deffeyes, 2003, for more information).pg18 of pdf

It was the US Lower-48 peak in 1970 (seen in retrospect) that proved Hubbert right, not OPEC nations restricting production in 1973.

Original article available here