It comes as no surprise at all that Canberra has scooped up a major award for its commitment towards achieving its renewable energy target of 100 per cent by 2020.

This year’s Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) award for “Best Renewable Target For An Australian City” went to the city of Canberra. The accolade was received by the ACT’s Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability.

Currently, CDP is the only disclosure system in the world for cities, countries, regions and companies.

“We motivate companies and cities to disclose their environmental impacts, giving decision makers the data they need to change market behavior,” the body said in a statement.

In 2016, a total of 533 cities across the globe disclosed their environmental information via the CDP. 71 countries and regions in the world now use the project to measure their environmental impacts.

The program, which was initiated by the ACT government, has gained so much popularity that it received backing by the Canberra Liberals, who gained even more power for doing so.

“The ‘Davids’ are showing the ‘Goliaths’ how it is done,” an obviously ecstatic Minister Rattenbury stated about the award.

“We cannot wait for the Prime Minister of Australia, or the President of the United States to decide that the long term interests of our communities, our economy, our Pacific neighbours or our environment are more important that the interests of the coal lobby,”.

Mr. Rattenbury added that the recently concluded Conference of the Parties (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco showed keen interest in the ACT’s achievements and in particular its successfully use of reverse auctions.

The Minister noted that to date, the ACT government has invested a whopping $1.5 billion in renewable energy and related infrastructure, and recorded a 400 per cent growth in clean energy jobs creation in the past five years.

In September this year, the Climate Council of Australia named Canberra the renewable energy capital of Australia.

As if that’s not all, the ACT government is also striving to become the Australian leader in home battery storage through an initiative that wants to ensure more than 5,000 battery systems are installed in both households and businesses that have already fitted solar power systems.

The 2016 CDP’s Australian Climate Leadership Report can be downloaded here (PDF).

IMAGE via Kate Ausburn