Council joins scheme for carbon trading

RACHAEL BROWN

A CARBON emissions trading scheme will be put into action by Kiama Council to reduce water and energy consumption.

The strategy has been initiated by Randwick Council, which has encouraged local government to participate in a small-scale, voluntary and flexible greenhouse gas Emissions Trading Scheme.

"The program involves setting reduction targets, implementing strategies to meet these targets, accurately monitoring water and energy usage and reducing the level of greenhouse gas emissions," manager for Environment and Health Paul Czulowski said.

The program will expand on the existing processes used by the council to monitor water and energy consumption.

"An action plan was developed a year ago to detect water leakages and this year we have been converting energy consumption rates to the level of greenhouse production and measuring the impact," Mr Czolowski said.

Kiama Council has set a water reduction target of 40 per cent and a 20 per cent energy consumption target across the next five years.

"The key is to try to monitor water consumption 24 hours and we have developed a water leakage detection system where we can monitor the water," Mr Czolowski said.

"We hope to be able to link these software systems to a computer system where someone working there can view a graph of their water consumption and indicate a problem when over a certain limit.

"With the number of amenities and underground pipes we can easily detect water leakages, which would have previously be unknown unless someone was working there."

Emissions trading will be assisted by a group of council representatives and science experts to verify the trading between local councils.

"I know the Mayor and Kiama Council is very pleased to join with Randwick Council in piloting this program to address climate change with other local governments throughout NSW," Mr Czolowski said.

The program's trial period is likely to be completed before the National Emissions Trading Scheme is introduced.