Climate Change

Climate change has the potential to affect our community, the economy, and our environment adversely. Victoria is already experiencing climate change impacts.

These include:

  • Increased and longer fire seasons
  • More extreme fire warning days
  • Higher than average temperatures
  • Less rainfall, drier conditions 
  • More intense and unpredictable weather events 

https://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/victorias-changing-climate

The significant climate change impacts projected for the Mallee region include:

  • Increased maximum and minimum temperatures
  • More hot days and heatwaves
  • Less rainfall in winter and spring
  • More intense rainfall events
  • Harsher and longer fire seasons 

Mallee Climate Projections 2019 (updated 19/02/2020) (PDF, 1.5 MB)

Climate Emergency

On 24 February 2020, Mildura Rural City Council became the 30th Local Government in Victoria, and the 94th in Australia, to declare a climate emergency.

Council declared we are in a state of climate change emergency requiring urgent action by all levels of government and passed a motion to:

  1. Write to all State and Federal parliamentarians whose offices lie within the MRCC municipal boundaries, and to the Prime Minister, the federal Opposition Leader and the Victorian Premier, expressing our position on the climate emergency (COMPLETED);
  2. Obtain current baseline greenhouse gas emission levels on municipal services, operations and infrastructure, and implement and report on a strategy to reduce these emissions including an analysis of our capacity to reach a target of zero-net emissions by 2050 (strategy implementation underway); and
  3. Conduct community consultation to develop community owned and activated climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Climate Emergency Community Advisory Group

Are you interested in helping to combat the effects of climate change in our community? Are you community-minded and keen to deliver community led actions, plans and programs?

We’re looking for community members for join our Climate Emergency Community Advisory Group (CECAG) and deliver actions identified in our Community Climate Response Plan 2024-2029.

Express your interest at https://forms.office.com/r/wYsSqtb5Pr before 31 January 2025.

The Community Climate Response Plan represents our first step toward bringing everyone in the Mallee region together to address climate change. The plan aims to come up with actions that protect our unique environment, help our local economy grow, and ensure everyone in our community is doing well. The plan was developed following community feedback and engagement, and has been divided into priority areas covering Health, Waste, Farming, Education, Natural Environment and Urban Environment, with actions covering a five-year period.

You can read the plan in full in the Related Information section below.

Our Partners and Alliances

Council have strategic partnerships that assist with accelerating climate action.
These include:

Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance (CVGA) is a partnership between 13 local governments in central and northern Victoria to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of the region’s communities through innovative projects, advocacy and knowledge sharing.

Cities Power Partnership (CPP) is Australia’s largest local government climate network leading the way to a thriving, zero emissions future.

Climate Emergency Australia (CEA) is a network of Australian councils that have declared a climate emergency.

Greening Mildura is a local organisation working to increase tree canopy cover in Mildura.

Sunraysia Sustainability Network is a local organisation championing a sustainable community.

Related Information

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