Is Wollongong City Council’s climate change mitigation plan on track? Image: Wollongong City Council.
In 2019, Wollongong City Council declared a climate emergency. A year later, it set two bold goals: net-zero emissions by 2030, and community-wide net zero by 2050.
Now, as 2025 draws to a close and the 2030 benchmark looms, how is progress tracking?
Mitch Golding, environmental sustainability organisational lead for the council, said the council had reduced its emissions by 20 to 25 per cent since 2021.
He said council’s main energy use came from electricity, gas and fuel.
Electricity demand was high, but a power purchase agreement ensured all major sites and streetlights ran on renewable energy.
More than 100 fleet vehicles were now electric or hybrid, with further transitions planned as suitable commercial models emerged.
But one major emissions source was harder to control.
“Our biggest challenge remains waste,” Mitch said.
The council owns and manages the Whyte’s Gully landfill, and all the emissions it gives off come under the council’s profile.
Mitch said those emissions were an order of magnitude bigger than the rest of the council’s emissions sources.
It also produces methane, which is a particularly potent greenhouse gas.
Waste diversion, such as recycling and FOGO, has helped to reduce the amount of landfill by more than 30,000 tonnes a year, but it is not enough.
“The tail-end solution is gas capture infrastructure,” Mitch said.
“Earlier this year we sunk 10 new wells, and now we’re capturing close to 40 per cent of emissions that way.
“The solution will be a combination of reducing waste, ideally through a circular economy, gas capture and new technologies.
“Is that a reality by 2030? Maybe not.”
Does this mean the council’s net-zero goal is dead in the water?
Not entirely.
Mitch said the pathway wasn’t linear, and as new technology became available it could enable significant reductions.
One of those is waste to hydrogen – turning garbage into energy reduces the need for fossil fuels and creates something valuable from landfill.
The technology doesn’t exist in Australia at the moment, however, and can have other negative environmental impacts that need to be addressed.
There’s also the rise in large-scale renewables.
Mitch said the council had a role to play both in supporting renewable projects and getting the community access to the benefits.
When it comes to community emissions, Mitch said the picture is brighter, although the available data isn’t as up to date as it is for the council’s operations.
“In 2022 emissions across the community had dropped about 20 per cent since 2016,” he said.
“We’ve seen substantial renewable energy projects come online since then, and our community emissions reduction target is largely on track.”
Mitch said the council’s role in bringing community-wide emissions down was supportive, rather than prescriptive.
Education, advocacy and enabling renewables and electrification were key.
He said for now the focus was on continuing the council’s emissions reduction strategies and turbocharging renewable access for the Wollongong community.
“It’s easy to look at our profile and think we should pour all our focus into waste,” Mitch said.
“But if all of Wollongong had clean, renewable energy, that would dwarf what we could do by reducing waste emissions.
“In the energy space the technology exists, the business case exists, and there’s momentum. For waste, there’s no magic bullet.”
That work looks like more community batteries and finding ways for renters and those in community housing to access renewable energy sources such as solar.
Mitch said the council ran a number of community programs to help educate residents on how to reduce their emissions and waste.
If you’d like to explore ways your household can reduce emissions, head to the council’s website for tips.
