TOWARDS A 'POST-CARBON' BELLARINE

Appropriate commerce, industry and employment are the heart of a community and are the foundation of its wellbeing, but the City of Greater Geelong's strategy for the Bellarine almost ignores them. Neither the Council's Bellarine Peninsula Strategic Plan nor any of its Structure Plans for individual towns has a vision of business developments on the peninsula.

In the absence of a Council strategy for the commercial development of Drysdale and Clifton Springs - indeed, of the whole Bellarine peninsula - jobs, businesses and consumer spending will inevitably continue to drain away from here and towards Geelong and Melbourne. However, the Council's lack of a strategy opens the way for local businesses to reverse that drainage of jobs, businesses and spending. How? By making the Bellarine a showcase for new products and services in a 'post-carbon' economy.


The end of an era
We are watching the end of an era. For three hundred years, the world's increasing population and consumption, combined with cheap, abundant energy, has brought amazing advances in wealth, health and well-being. These advances have been distributed unequally across the world and so have the associated risks and dangers. But this era is ending, because the world faces an inter-related collection of crises:
• Supplies of oil, natural gas, and coal have peaked or will do so soon
• Food production and distribution can't match population growth
• Fresh water is increasingly scarce
• Biodiversity is decreasing rapidly
• Climate change is making the earth a more dangerous place to live in.

The ending of the carbon era accompanies the beginning of a 'post-carbon' era. In the transition to this new, 'post-carbon' era, we will see declines in the extraction, exploitation and emission of carbon-related products. In a post-carbon economy, no oil is drilled, no coal is mined and no gas is piped; no oil, coal or gas is burnt without 100% carbon capture; and nothing is manufactured from fossil fuels.

In a post-carbon economy, carbon emissions are priced - like capital, energy and labour - and carbon is capped, captured, offset and traded. This will change our businesses and lives significantly. The present, carbon economy has fostered lifestyles that are 'dirty', carbon-intensive, global and wasteful. In contrast, a post-carbon economy will foster lifestyles that are 'clean', de-carbonized, de-globalized and re-localized, durable, re-useable and renewable.


A 'post-carbon' Bellarine? The transition to a post-carbon economy offers businesses on the Bellarine new opportunities to increase their competitive edge by featuring their 'green' skills and credentials. For example:
• Gas and electrical engineering: advise on and install energy efficient heating and cooling systems
• Plumbing: advise on and install water efficient devices and water recycling systems
• Construction: feature insulation and energy efficient lighting and plumbing in new buildings and 'retrofit' them in old ones
• Agriculture and forestry: replant underused land (including bushland and foreshores) with biofuel crops that create new 'carbon sinks' and new revenue; secure vulnerable wetlands and increase their value by installing boardwalks and signage; develop reduced-input cultivation and processing
• Vehicle mechanics and service stations: advise on and install energy efficient technologies; feature services for hybrid and electrical vehicles
• Retailing: feature the carbon costs of your products and services, increasing the attraction of local sources.


Where next?
Each business can ride the transition to a post-carbon economy in its own way. there are also a couple of steps that local businesses can take together for mutual advantage.

1. Form a special interest group of the Drysdale & Clifton Springs Community Association (DCSCA).
I would like local businesses to get together to ensure that their interests and concerns are a consistent feature of DCSCA's work - forming a special interest group of the Association is a way to do this. In particular, I'd like to see local businesses - through DCSCA - pressing the City of Greater Geelong to lead the way towards a post-carbon Bellarine. For more information on establishing a DCSCA Business Special interest Group: patrick.hughes47@bigpond.com

2. Support Bellarine 10-20.
Bellarine 10-20 is a summit meeting of local people on the Bellarine. It will be held early in 2010 and will enable local people to say what they would like the Bellarine to look like in ten years time - hence '10-20'.

The immediate focus of the summit will be a community review of the City of Greater Geelong's Bellarine Strategic Plan, which was adopted in 2006.

Bellarine 10-20 will be run under the auspices of the Affiliation of Bellarine Community Associations (ABCA), which is asking each of its affiliated associations to review the sections of the Bellarine Strategic Plan which affect it.

Bellarine 10-20 offers local businesses an ideal opportunity to present their interests and wishes to local residents, visitors and politicians. For more information: patrick.hughes47@bigpond.com
If you live or work on the Bellarine, also contact your local Community Association.

The announcement of Bellarine 10-20 was published on the front page of the Bellarine Times on 25 August 2009. (To read the full story, go to the newspaper's archives: http://issuu.com/surfcoasttimes/docs/bellarinetimes_aug25)


(A shorter version of this paper was presented to the Springdale Business Network Breakfast on 24 September 2009.)