The Ballarat social worker will contest the November election as a runner in the central ward, standing as an endorsed Greens party candidate.

Ms Coates previously stood for the party at the 2006 state election and last year's federal election.

Yesterday, she said she believed local government was a good place to have an input.

"Local government is an obvious place to influence decisions, to improve community wellbeing and environmental wellbeing," she said.

"It is about being able to take some real concrete action on climate change in a grassroots way - and it is quicker than other levels of government because at a state and federal level there is more bureaucracy

and it is more difficult to implement things."

Ms Coates said she believed Ballarat City Council could be doing more for the environment.

"Things are changing so quickly that we do need to be acting faster and allocating more resources," she said.

"There are lots of different things they could do; for example helping provide incentives for things like public transport.

"You travel around Ballarat on public transport and not many people use it, so that is a really wasted resource."