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Sky News AU
7 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
ABC under fire for pushing ‘environmental lunacy' after claiming heated local swimming pools contributing to rise in emissions
The ABC has been ridiculed for publishing an article claiming the use of gas-fired boilers to heat public swimming pools in Melbourne was contributing to a rise in the city's carbon output despite Australia making up only 1 per cent of global emissions. In a piece published on Monday, the ABC took aim at a number of inner city Melbourne councils for continuing to heat public pools and aquatic centres with gas-boilers. The article said that as 'temperatures plummet in winter' heating community pools 'came at an environmental cost' and that the use of gas-fired boilers were making up as much as half of local councils greenhouse gas emissions. The ABC chose to expose the City of Darebin and emphasised that its Reservoir Leisure Centre formed 60 per cent of the localities remaining gas use, despite Darebin Council legislating for all council owned buildings to switch to an electric based system by 2030. Sky News host Caleb Bond slammed the public broadcaster for targeting Melbourne local councils that were taking active steps to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and said that peoples' swimming patterns would not alleviate global warming. 'If a heated swimming pool is the worst of our worries in terms of our emissions, I think we are doing bloody well,' Bond said. 'This stuff is in some way dangerous because it lulls people into thinking that if they made some small adjustment in their life then it is somehow going to make a major difference to the world. The ABC also interviewed Jim Shen; a 42-year-old local who visits the Darebin Reservoir Leisure Centre on a regular basis with Mr Shen calling on the council to transition its indoor heated pools to 'colder outdoor pools.' 'They found one bloke in this story - Jim Shen - who unsuccessfully ran for his local council under an environmental banner,' Bond said, lashing the ABC's choice of commentary. Bond accused the ABC of fearmongering and for presenting a one-dimensional narrative that ignored the fact that Australia's contribution to global emissions came in at barely one per cent. 'You not going for a swim in a pool that's heated by gas is also going to do bugger all for the world. But you get to absolve yourself of all guilt, and say I've fixed the problem when you actually haven't,' Bond said. Darebin Council was the first locality in the world to declare the planet was in the throes of a 'climate emergency' and has also passed an emergency action plan to combat the impact of climate change. Late Debate host Freya Leach also took aim at the ABC's article and said that climate change would continue to intensify even if all inner-city Melbourne councils switched to a renewable based grid. 'Even if all these local councils went fully renewable it would do absolutely nothing to fix global climate change, it's wild,' Leach said. 'It would do nothing, and it would cost ratepayers millions to refurbish these pools with electric heaters instead of gas boilers, it's another example of environmental lunacy that does nothing to solve the actual problems. Prominent journalist Joe Hildebrand labelled Darebin the 'hipster Mecca of Melbourne' and said the story was a perfect example of 'gentrification' and 'inner city values being forced on normal people.' 'The leisure centre they are talking about is what outsiders would call a reservoir, what once used to be s rough as guts battler working class area that is now starting to be gentrified,' Hildebrand said. 'This great facility the community has got where you can go for a swim is now under attack by ideologues."
ABC News
10-08-2025
- General
- ABC News
As temperatures plummet in winter, heating Australia's public pools comes at an environmental cost
Swimming is a weekly activity for Jim Shen and his two children at their local pool in Melbourne's north. The 42-year-old comes from a family of strong swimmers and wants the same for his own kids. "It's a no-brainer. If you can give them the opportunity to learn how to swim early on, you do that," he said. As temperatures plummet in the winter months, Mr Shen's family visit the Reservoir Leisure Centre's indoor heated pool for lessons and regular exercise. "An indoor pool that's heated, to transition them to colder outdoor pools ... I think that's really important," he said. But Mr Shen — who has a background in engineering and ran an unsuccessful, pro-environment council campaign in 2020 — wishes the centre had a more sustainable way of keeping the water warm. The aquatic facility is operated by the City of Darebin, and draws its heat from gas-fired boilers, which burn fossil fuels to quickly heat its waters and maintain a desired temperature. The municipality was the first worldwide to declare a climate emergency and create an emergency plan to deal with climate change. By 2030, all of its buildings and assets are required to be electric and run on 100 per cent renewable energy. The council said it has reduced its gas emissions over recent years, with Reservoir Leisure Centre contributing to 60 per cent of its remaining gas output. "Principle is one thing, but measurable outcomes is another," Mr Shen said. About a quarter of Australia's aquatic centres are in Victoria. The ABC asked several inner-Melbourne councils how their centres are powered. It shows gas-fired systems at some aquatic centres are contributing to about half of their council's annual greenhouse emissions. In Melbourne's south-east, Stonnington Council operates two leisure centres, which account for 51 per cent of its yearly emissions. Meanwhile, the City of Melbourne operates four centres, which make up around 5 per cent of its gas emissions. The council is planning to convert these facilities to electric heating systems, in line with its net-zero strategy by 2040. Jarrod Leak from the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP), said electrified systems could be 10 times more efficient than the existing fossil fuel boilers heating many of the country's pools in winter. Victoria is facing natural gas shortages because of waning supply from the Bass Strait, according to the Australian energy market retailer AEMO. The regulator predicts gas supplies on the east coast could fall short of demand in peak times within a few years. As well as helping preserve those limited gas supplies, Mr Leak said councils making the switch to electric technologies, like heat pumps, would benefit from lower energy prices and decarbonisation. "These are beautiful and beloved assets by the community, so we want to keep them and we want to see them decarbonised but we need to have them running really efficiently and we need to get them off natural gas," Mr Leak said. A2EP is a not-for-profit collection of businesses and researchers helping corporations transition to a net-zero future. Mr Leak said about a quarter of Australia's aquatic centres are currently running heat pumps, and he expects that to increase to 35 per cent in the next two years. "With that efficiency, and you couple that with renewable electricity, you're getting the gain of lower energy prices and decarbonisation," Mr Leak said. While many councils contacted by the ABC recognised the need to transition to cleaner technology, some are a lot closer to others when it comes to making the change. The Maribyrnong City Council operates one aquatic centre in Melbourne's inner-west, which relies on a gas boiler and accounts for 41 per cent of its yearly emissions. "It's an outdated system and it uses a lot of gas," Mayor Pradeep Tiwari said. The council recently secured a $2.5 million federal government grant to transition the Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre from natural gas to a centralised heat pump system. Mr Tiwari said it will help the council achieve its bold net-zero target by 2030. "It's going to save over 1,200 tonnes of carbon emissions, which equates to about 93 per cent of council's total carbon emissions." The first round of the federal government's Community Energy Upgrades Fund supported 58 local governments to deliver a cheaper and cleaner energy future, including 31 local aquatic centres. The Maribyrnong City Council has estimated the transition to heat pumps will save about $400,000 in operating costs each year. Other centres, which have already made the transition are still ironing out various kinks. The City of Darebin's other aquatic centre at Northcote was designed to be fully electric and achieve the highest sustainability ratings. Unlike gas boilers, the centre's heat pumps extract heat from the surrounding air and transfer it to the pool water. But occasionally, the cold temperatures outside mean the pumps enter a defrost cycle and can't operate effectively, which reduces the temperature of the 50-metre pool from its desired temperature of 26°C. "As a long-term solution, council is also investing to install additional heating infrastructure to support the electric heat pumps," Mayor Kristine Olaris said. The centre has used pool covers and temporary closures to conserve the pool's temperature. Other facilities — like the Brimbank Aquatic Centre in Keilor Downs and the Fitzroy Swimming Pool — have retained limited use of gas boilers to complement the roll-out of electric heat pumps. Mr Leak said this blended approach could help bring down emissions and operating costs. "We say it's good to keep a gas system as a back up. Maybe the heat pump will do 98 per cent of the job, keep the gas system just for that 2 per cent," he said. For habitual swimmers Jim Shen, the shift to more sustainable technology couldn't come soon enough. "If it is good for the environment, and they're able to run these things financially sustainably, then everyone wins in the community," he said.
