Cairns councillor Anna Middleton speaks out over carbon credits

Cairns Regional Council will sell its carbon credits to major global polluters with angry councillors claiming mayor Amy Eden is greenwashing the city’s environmental credentials.

Division Seven councillor Anna Middleton believes the Cairns Smart Green Economy program is not worth the paper it's printed on, after her fellow councilors voted five votes to three to endorse the sale of the council's carbon credit units, due in part to budget pressures. Picture: Brendan Radke

Cairns Regional Council will sell its carbon credits to major global polluters with angry councillors claiming mayor Amy Eden is greenwashing the city’s environmental credentials.

But Ms Eden has cited a cost-of-living crisis in defending her decision for “cashing in” on the sale of around $2m worth of credits, largely accrued from landfill gas flaring.

Councillors Rhonda Coghlan, Rob Pyne and Anna Middleton voted against the motion endorsing the sale of the council's carbon credit units. Picture: Brendan Radke

Division Seven councillor Anna Middleton argued that the council could have struck a balance by surrendering $252,000 worth of “certificates” attained through its use of renewable energy in partnership with the state-government owned Clean Co company.

“Cairns Regional Council entered into this agreement … with the main intent of reducing emissions in line with the climate change strategy of achieving net zero for council’s operations,” Ms Middleton said.

“The intent was that these carbon credits would be surrendered and not sold, because if we sell the credits onto others we cannot claim them as our credits and we would not be reducing our emissions at all.

“To claim that we’re using renewable energy and then to sell the credits on is greenwashing.”

Division Seven councillor Anna Middleton and Division Eight councillor Rhonda Coghlan both voted against selling off all of the council’s environmental credits. Picture: Brendan Radke

Additionally, the decision undermined the council’s Reef Guardian agreement with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Ms Middleton said.

“To sell out our environment and our commitment to net zero seems ludicrous,” she said.

“We must be committed to being part of the solution to combating climate change.”

Cairns Regional Council’s Division Two councillor, Matthew Tickner has backed the sale. Picture: Brendan Radke

While the sale will likely cause the council some reputational damage, Division Two councillor, Matthew Tickner said the decision to surrender credits would be akin to burning money.

“It would be remiss of us to put the lighter to $250,000 that can be put into our council services,” Mr Tickner said. “I understand this will change our profile on paper. We’re not going to try to greenwash this.

“We will have to renew what our climate emissions targets now represent and I’m comfortable with that.”

The Clean Co agreement had reduced expenses and helped the council transition to renewable energy, Division Eight councillor Rhonda Coghlan said.

“We’ve saved residents $1.1m annually in electricity costs,” Ms Coghlan said.

Cairns Mayor Amy Eden chairs the Cairns Regional Council ordinary meeting held at the council chambers on Spence Street. Picture: Brendan Radke

Surrendering the credits failed to provide any return on investment for ratepayers, Ms Eden said.

“This unlocks real, unrestricted funds that can reduce the financial burden on ratepayers right now,” she said.

“Feel-good headlines don’t pay the bills, they don’t build infrastructure, fund services and they don’t put money back into the pockets of the people that we serve.”

A ratepayer-funded electric vehicle charging station located next to Cairns mayor Amy Eden's personal parking space. The council says the charging station can be accessed by other council employees who use electric vehicles to commute to the council's Spence St offices.

Ms Eden’s decision to sell the credits is in contrast with her reasoning behind a decision to secure a $70,000 electric work vehicle with ratepayer funds last year.

Since then, a charging station has been installed next to Ms Eden’s personal parking space inside the executive carpark.

In a written response, the council confirmed the purchase but refused to answer how much the charging station cost ratepayers, or when it was installed.

“Mayor Eden selected an electric vehicle, reflecting (the) council’s commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions,” a council spokesman said on Wednesday.

“As such, she has access to a common use charging station installed in the executive carpark at Spence St. Other users of this carpark have access to the charging facility.”

The council has two additional EV charging stations at its Spence St offices.

Originally published as Cairns councillor Anna Middleton speaks out over carbon credits