Parramatta to Join Global Network C40 in Net Zero Push

The Shell Oil refinery in Parramatta is seen in Sydney, Australia, on June 2, 2007. Ian Waldie/Getty Images

The mayor of Parramatta, Australia’s largest city council, is set to sign up for C40, a global collective of nearly 100 mayors around the world advocating for climate change measures.

Founded by London’s former Labour mayor Ken Livingstone in 2005, C40 promotes net zero policies to halve emissions by 2030 as part of the Global Green New Deal and “keep global heating below the 1.5 degrees Celcius of the Paris Agreement.” The group is now chaired by London mayor Sadiq Khan.

Currently, Sydney and Melbourne are the only Australian cities in the global network, along with other cities such as New York, Rome, Stockholm, and Jakarta.

City of Parramatta Lord Mayor Cr Pierre Esber said the C40 network’s goals fit with the wider vision for the future of the city.

Mr. Esber said Parramatta has become “the first council in Australia to achieve carbon neutral certification for services in a public domain for Parramatta Square and earned a 6-star Green Star rating for our civic hub, PHIVE.”

He said the council has also been powered by 100 percent renewable energy since 2022 and aims to cut its carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2048, based on 2015 levels.

“We want a sustainable future for Parramatta, and we walk the talk,” Mr. Esber noted in a press release.

He added that the council’s food organics garden organics (FOGO) waste program will be up and running by the end of 2024 to “help divert food waste from landfill and reduce emissions even further.”

The mayor envisioned Parramatta to become an “unrivalled river city that is a global leader in resilience, regeneration, and recreation and to create a model city at Camellia-Rosehill that is a world-class example of urban regeneration.”

What Are C40’s Policies?

C40’s website outlines its goal to “influence the global agenda” and target “sectors that are the most significant contributors to the climate crisis” including transportation, buildings, and waste.

C40 said the world “must deliver, at the minimum,” the goals to halve global fossil fuel use by 2035 and stop any further investment in new fossil fuel projects, as well as tripling renewable energy by 2030.

In its C40 Strategic Recommendations Guidelines (pdf), the group called on cities to avoid investment in natural gas power plants or the development of gas grids, arguing that “natural gas is a fossil fuel.”

Its air quality policies include “supporting a shift to cleaner cooking” by banning household combustion of solid fuels, such as wood and coal, replacing household cookstoves (fuelled by kerosene, coal, and biomass) with “more efficient models that use clean fuels,” ideally electricity.

It also advises cities to shift city fleets and public transport fleets to electric vehicles as soon as possible.

The group also called for a shift from private vehicles to public transport, walking, and cycling.

In terms of urban planning, the group aims to “reduce or eliminate” single-family residential zoning to allow for multi-family development, and “eliminate parking minimums to disincentivise private vehicle use.”

Radical Measures, Wealthy Financial Backers

However, some of the policies proposed by C40 have met with criticism.

In London, the mayor has faced backlash over the implementation of their version of the measures put forward by the C40 network.

The plan implements one of the world’s harshest climate standards, with some zones prohibiting vehicles that do not meet emission standards.

Critics described the plan as a cash-raising exercise that is unlikely to deliver air quality improvements as it promised.

The plan has even led Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to urge the London mayor to “think twice” on the expansion, warning the plan would add  “unnecessary extra tax” and burden to families.

“It just shows that they are out of touch with the concerns of hard-working people,” he said, according to BBC News.

As a global network, C40 is funded by extremely wealthy organisations and corporations, including Google, the Clinton Foundation, the World Bank, and billionaire George Soros.

C40’s international offices are in the UK, Denmark, South Africa, and Beijing. Despite Beijing being one of the top 200 most polluted cities in the world, with pollution levels reaching 20 times the recommended limit by the World Health Organisation, it hosts a C40 office.

The C40 website notes, “Each of the affiliates may be data controllers of your personal information, and it may be shared internally between these affiliates to achieve the purposes set out.”