What is net zero emissions?

Net zero emissions means that your community balances out emissions to be zero overall. Activities that create emissions are offset by being carbon positive in other areas. For example, you could generate more renewable electricity than you use and export some to the grid to compensate for still using petrol for transport. Or you could plant enough trees each year to take the equivalent carbon out of the air.

A net zero plan is a roadmap to achieving net zero for your community. It is a complex undertaking and will mean thinking about emissions from lots of activities (for example, buildings, transport, food). It is likely to require years to be implemented. There are some other energy and carbon related goals you could consider planning for:

• Net Zero Energy
• Totally Renewable
• Resilience
• Economic Development and community wealth building - this doesn't always include strong climate and energy goals but it should!

Why is a Plan Helpful?

A plan provides a strategic framework for achieving your goals and measuring your progress. A plan maps out the requirements and opportunities to meet the emissions challenge. These are some of the steps:

• Engage with your community. This will determine what goals to aim for, and how you can get there.

• Set your goals and your timeframe.

• Estimate your current emissions or energy use. You will have to decide what is included – is it just direct energy use, or are you including things like food? Are you including waste?

• Work out the steps you need to reach your goals. These will include community engagement, setting organisational structures and governance, technology choices, finance and fundraising. Often these processes reach beyond your community group and involve local government and link to their strategies for community action.

Benefits of a Plan for Net Zero Emissions

Planning for net zero emissions provides a range of environmental, economic and social benefits. Communities can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate the impacts of climate change, and protect the environment for future generations. These are some of the benefits:

• Increased energy independence: Developing distributed energy resources and building energy storage can increase a community's energy independence, reducing its dependence on imported energy.

• Cost savings: By incorporating energy efficiency measures, a community can reduce its energy consumption, which can lead to cost savings for residents and businesses.

• Economic development: A renewable energy system can attract new businesses and industries that are looking for reliable and affordable energy, this can help to drive economic growth and job creation.

Challenges

Planning for net zero is a complex undertaking, so there are a many challenges:

• Achieving net zero emissions will involve the entire community. It will mean changing individual and collective energy consumption, transport choices, and lifestyle patterns.

• Estimating emissions will mean getting information about the local energy system, transport, waste, and possibly your food systems. This can be time consuming and might require additional funding if specific data is needed.

• Balancing different interests, addressing concerns, and fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders will be complex and time-consuming

When is creating a plan for net zero emissions a good choice

Planning out your initiative always makes sense. However, planning for net zero emissions for your entire community is ambitious and requires the whole town to be on board with your ideas, in order to co-create and co-own the process.

Project Examples

Hepburn Z-NET - Hepburn Z-NET engaged the entire community to make the Hepburn Shire the first zero-net emission shire in Australia. The plan involved firstly energy efficiency, then delivery of significant investment in mid-scale renewable energy project, finally an electric vehicle transition matched with increasing deployment of renewable electricity generation to meet the charging requirements.

Hepburn Shire Net Zero Emission Plan - Provides great insight how to tackle this ambitious task.