Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Local government
Changing expectations: adapting to a changing climate
Addressing the impacts of a changing climate requires action by all three levels of
government as well as partnerships with organisations and institutions outside of
government. In light of the recognised exposure of public assets and the community
to climate change risk, local governments face a rapidly expanding service-delivery
task, including:
• developing climate adaptation policy and planning for local government areas
and, where possible, for regions
• sustainable design and land use planning, including new standards for construction
and effective regulation
• contributing to the development of more resilient communities that can work
together to reduce their vulnerability to climate change and recover more
quickly from adverse events
• developing new models for water reuse and recycling and municipal solid waste
management
• protecting natural resources and increasing the resilience of local ecosystems
• incorporating public participation at all levels of climate change adaptation. 54
However,akeychallengeforAustralianlocalgovernmentsisthattheylack
the legal power and financial resources to fulfil this mandate effectively. With a
strong reliance on rates and user fees and charges, they do not have access to
the new revenue streams needed to carry out many of these tasks. 55 Another
core local government service, land use planning, is also affected; it is difficult
to predict how climate change impacts will manifest on a local scale, and there
is ‘a lack of scientific information at a scale relevant to inform local planning’. 56
Therefore, effectively adapting to and mitigating climate change may appear beyond
the existing capacities of local government, particularly in rural and remote
Australia. 57
However, a number of useful models are emerging to assist local governments
to address service-delivery challenges arising from climate change. Recently,
international networks, such as the C40 and Resilient Cities networks, have formed
to build local capacity and drive action by facilitating knowledge exchange.
Moloney and Fünfgeld also describe the Climate Change Alliances that have
emerged in Victoria as good examples of local governments demonstrating their
capacity to respond to climate change in the absence of clear direction and support
from state and national governments. 58 Serrao-Neumann et al. also discuss three
Australian local government-led public participation initiatives and note that it is
54 Based on: Preston and Scott 2012; Moloney and Fünfgeld 2015; Serrao-Neumann et al. 2015.
55 Preston and Scott 2012, 14.
56 Baker et al. 2012, 135.
57 Baker et al. 2012, 128.
58 Moloney and Fünfgeld, 2015.
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