Issuu

VOLUME 37, NUMBER 10, OCTOBER 2021

REGISTERED BY AUSTRALIA POST PRINT POST APPROVED PP 100001964 ISSN 0819–470X

Climate costs councils More funding is needed to help local governments cope with the costs of climate change, according to a new report from the Climate Council and Cities Power Partnership.

The report, Neighbourhood issue: Climate costs and risks to councils, released last month, found climate-fuelled extreme weather was compounding costs for councils. The bill for local governments to fix eroding beaches and protect beachside property or infrastructure commonly exceeded $1 million and could reach as high as $54 million per year. Report author and Climate Council spokesperson, Professor Lesley Hughes said, “Climate impacts cut across almost all areas of local government responsibility including the maintenance of critical assets and infrastructure and delivery of essential community services. As the closest tier of government to the community, councils are often at the forefront of disaster response. “State and federal assistance is falling short of what’s required to help councils prepare for and respond to extreme weather.

“However, while council responsibilities – including those related to climate change – are growing, their tax revenue has shrunk to the fourth lowest share among the 30 industrialised nations that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “Effectively, councils are being asked to do more, with less. Without increased funding, guidance and support, I can’t imagine how they will continue to protect and provide for their communities.” Key findings The report found that while climate change is an immense challenge for all levels of government, its impacts are felt most acutely at the local level. Worsening extreme weather, is compounding costs for councils including mounting damage to council-owned assets, rising insurance premiums and increasing liability risks.

One South Australian council reported over a third of total operating expenditure goes to coastline management.

Flooding on the New South Wales Central Coast February 2020.

Twenty-four New South Wales councils impacted by floods in March 2021 also experienced floods or storms the previous year. Additionally, six of those local governments had more than 40 percent of their region burned in the Black Summer bushfires. During Black Summer,

one fifth of Towong Shire Council staff were personally affected and Council resources were ‘effectively exhausted’ within 72 hours. A growing number of Australians have no insurance or inadequate insurance coverage for their property, which increases pressure on councils

and the broader community to provide financial support in the wake of climate-fuelled disasters. Rates of noninsurance range from 17 percent in north Queensland (more than 62,000 properties) and as high as 40 percent in northern Western Australia (more than 10,000 properties).

Preparation vs recovery Cities Power Partnership Director, Dr Portia Odell said, “Spending public money on disaster preparation rather than disaster recovery is always money better spent, yet 97 percent of all Australian disaster funding only comes in the wake of an event. “Many councils are leading on actions to mitigate the impacts of climate change by cutting emissions through switching to clean energy and building greener, more efficient communities. But more can be done. “If we want to avoid catastrophic impacts and create a prosperous future for local communities, all levels of government must ramp up their climate action.”

Hidden emissions a growing problem Without action, embodied carbon will be responsible for 85 percent of Australia’s built environment emissions by 2050, a new report from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and thinkstep-anz has found. The report, Embodied Carbon and Embodied Energy in Australia’s Buildings, was developed by GBCA and thinkstep-anz with support from the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. It found embodied carbon – the emissions generated during the manufacture, construction, maintenance and demolition of buildings – made up 16 percent of Australia’s built environment emissions in 2019. Without intervention this share will balloon to 85 percent

at a time when Australia must achieve net zero emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. The GBCA’s Chief Executive Officer, Davina Rooney, said the challenge of decarbonising the built environment had never been more urgent since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sounded the global alarm, announcing temperatures were likely to rise by more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels within just two decades, bringing with it widespread devastation and extreme weather.

“We are on a journey to decarbonise our buildings, but up until now we haven’t quantified the hidden emissions in Australia’s built environment – our embodied carbon. “While we are making great strides forward in our work to tackle operational carbon in buildings, embodied carbon is largely locked in before a building is occupied. The decisions we make today will have implications and impacts for decades to come.” Chief Executive Officer of thinkstep-anz, Dr Barbara Nebel, said, “As Australia’s

electricity grid decarbonises, and as more buildings are powered by renewable energy, embodied carbon from the built environment will make up a greater proportion of Australia’s total carbon footprint – increasing by 50 percent from 2019 to 2050.” Embodied carbon is hard to solve and requires systemic change along the length of the supply chain. A significant share of embodied emissions in buildings come from common building products, like concrete and steel, that are manufactured through process heat and chem-

ical reactions. This means their embodied emissions will not decrease by decarbonising the electricity grid alone. Rooney explains, “On the supply side, we need manufacturers to innovate – to experiment with design, process substitution, carbon capture and storage and green hydrogen, for example. On the demand side, we need constructors to ask for low-carbon products, to reuse existing materials and to refurbish, where they can, rather than rebuild. “Industry and governments must also step up their game.

The report makes this clear: there is a clear need for governments to support suppliers as they decarbonise and for investment in research and development of new materials and practices. “Tackling embodied carbon is an enormous challenge, but by doing so we will not only drive down emissions in our building stock. We will also help to future-proof Australia’s energy-intensive industries and ensure we can maintain our global competitiveness in a low-carbon world.”

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