Sydney intends to take lead in achieving zero carbon emissions among Australian cities

SYDNEY, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Australia's largest city of Sydney announced on Tuesday it aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2035, a move making it the country's first city to set such an early target.

Mayor Clover Moore said the city's revised target, highlighted in Sydney's proposed new Environmental Strategy 2021-2025, underscored a commitment to action on climate change.

She said it was essential to act quickly to reduce carbon emissions and criticized the federal government for its slow response on the issue.

"Australia's emissions have been going up since 2014, and in the face of the Government's shameful inaction we are stepping up to reduce our emissions steeper and sooner," she said.

Moore said "greening the grid, diverting waste from landfill and increasing green building standards would all play a part in how we meet the challenges of the climate crisis and create a city that is net zero emissions in less than 15 years."

Sydney's environmental strategy set out ways it would try to slash carbon emissions with a range of programs covering such fields as waste management, energy and fuel.

It noted, for instance, that energy consumption produced 73 percent of the local area's greenhouse gas emissions, and the city will encourage businesses, residents and other organizations to use renewable energy sources and switch to green power.

As the transport sector is another essential area, which accounted for 16 percent of the city's carbon emissions from 2018 to 2019, the solutions included increasing the use of electricity power in public transport.

The city will also continue to encourage residents to shift from using private vehicles to public transport, walking and cycling, as well as support businesses to use more electric vehicles.

Another way to reduce carbon emissions is to stage a "war on waste", with such measures as reducing single use plastics, recycling food scraps, reducing waste and improving waste management.

By far the greatest contributor to residential waste in Sydney was food, which accounted for more than a third of space in the city's bins. To make a change, Sydney is running a food scraps recycling trial, with about 11,000 households now able to access the scheme and with an additional 10,000 households expected to have access by September.