Australia's greenest city: Adelaide pulls ahead of Sydney and Melbourne

Across the nation, city councils are tackling climate change at a grassroots level, with green buildings, electric transport and ambitious emissions targets

The rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne stretches back through history. So too does the tug-of-war between Queensland and, well, just about all the other states. While these contests haven't always been friendly, the race to be Australia's greenest city will see the whole country benefitting.

All of the local governments responsible for Australia's capital cities have schemes in place (or in progress) to use energy-efficient lighting in council-run locations, as lighting accounts for as much as 40% of local authority emissions - and a large percentage of council electricity bills.