A Notice of Motion to replace Council’s 2030 net zero target with an open-ended “adaptable” strategy was defeated 6 to 3 on 24 September 2026. BES spoke against the motion and welcomes the result.
Ballina Shire Council will keep its target of net zero emissions for Council operations by 2030. At the Ordinary Meeting on 24 September 2026, councillors voted 6 to 3 against a Notice of Motion (Item 11.2) that would have replaced the fixed target with an open-ended “Adaptable Emission Reduction Strategy”. BES spoke against the motion. Here is what we said, and why keeping Ballina’s net zero 2030 target matters.
A target that is already working
Council’s own papers show its corporate emissions fell from 11,201 tonnes in 2012 to 9,561 tonnes in the latest reporting year. That is a 14 per cent cut, achieved while the organisation was growing. Counting renewables and offsets, net emissions are down 68 per cent, and a power purchase agreement now supplies 100 per cent renewable electricity to Council’s large sites.
That progress was made under the 2030 target. BES’s message to Council was simple: keep it.
What BES told Council
BES member Graham Shaw presented the deputation on behalf of the Society. He made three points.
The flexibility already exists. Council’s Climate Change Policy treats the target as aspirational, not as a pass or fail measure. The Corporate Emissions Reduction Plan is project based and responds to budgets, grants and priorities. So the real choice was never between a rigid plan and a flexible one. It was between a flexible plan with an endpoint and a flexible plan without one.
The comparison didn’t hold. The motion pointed to Coffs Harbour City Council and Byron Shire Council. Neither dropped its commitment. Both pushed back their dates after adding scope 3 emissions (the indirect emissions from contractors and from goods and services they buy) to their pathways. They made their targets bigger first, then moved the date to match.
Scope 3 is the meaningful next step. Ballina currently counts scope 1 and 2 emissions only. If Council wants to follow its neighbours, the way to do it is to add scope 3 to its pathway. Council’s papers estimate this at $35,000 to $40,000, and BES would support it.
BES also reminded councillors that the policy was reviewed and readopted only in May 2026, after public exhibition and community submissions.
Why a fixed net zero target matters
A target is not paperwork. It is the one commitment residents, staff and funders can hold onto. Yearly measures with no end date track activity, not progress towards a goal. Grant bodies also tend to look more favourably on councils that have a stated target.
Keeping the 2030 target keeps Ballina accountable and protects a record the Shire can be proud of. Our thanks to Graham for representing BES, and to the councillors who voted to keep the commitment.
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