Driving local climate solutions together with Cities Power Partnership

From electrifying council fleets to rolling out renewable energy in the community, the Cities Power Partnership initiative is helping councils decarbonise their operations and reduce community emissions.

Councils are key players in driving climate action in Australia, and Cities Power Partnership Director Dr Portia Odell says supporting councils with the right tools and advice will have a big impact on the accelerating Australia’s climate solutions.

“Around the country, councils are powering their operations with 100 percent renewable energy, electrifying their fleets and supporting their communities to install solar panels and insulate their homes,” said Portia.

The Cities Power Partnership has 186 participating councils which together represent over 70% of Australia’s population. Their member councils have set over 800 climate pledges that are creating cleaner cities, cheaper power, better housing and more connected transport for their communities.

There is strong overlap between Bank Australia and the Cities Power Partnership’s climate action goals, and our Head of Impact Management Jane Kern says the partnership is all about deepening the impact of the initiative.

“We recognise the enabling role Cities Power Partnership can play in driving community-led climate action. Together, we can continue empowering local leaders to become strong advocates for and enablers of climate action,” said Jane.

Community-led climate action will support Bank Australia’s climate action goals too, since over 90% of our emissions come from the homes we finance. That means by helping to decarbonise community emissions we’ll be supporting efforts to help us reach our goal of net zero by 2035 and achieve our 2030 science-based target*.

The Cities Power Partnership initiative has contributed to building strong relationships with leaders at local, state and national government levels. This includes the Cities Power Partnership’s Climate Summit for Local Government, where Jane (pictured right) presented on a panel about ‘Electrifying Everything’ and met with Portia (pictured left). You can read more about ‘going electric' on our blog.

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*Note - Following our merger with Qudos Bank, we have reviewed our climate action strategy to expand it for the whole bank. The merger changed the size of our business significantly, and this meant we needed to set a new baseline and recalculate our emissions reduction targets. Read our 2026 climate action strategy to learn more about our 2035 emissions reduction target.