Climate change – people DO want to DO ‘something’

Is Local Government PLANNING for a hotter climate?

The Climate Action Network Australia (CANA) says a much hotter climate could be with us sooner than we think and a reader has sent us this link to pass on CANA’s concerns.

Just a few days ago PWF wrote about BP’s UK research showing people wanted to do something about global warming but just didn’t know where to start. Local Government – more accessible to people’s concerns? – will have to deal specifically with the social implications of climate change:

• Councils’ town planning function could be a mechanism to adapt to climate change;and
• planning can influence the level of our settlements’ emissions.

CSIRO says Cairns in particular is vulnerable to flooding worsened by climate change. It says the cost to the community could double in the next 50 years and a one in a hundred year storm surge would inundate an area twice the size of presently affected areas.

BUT despite these forecasts, there is no legislation from State planning authorities on adaptation to climate change, NOR is there any reference at the Federal level by the Australian Building Codes Board to making homes ‘climate proof’ or at least resilient to climate change.

A 2004 report by Austroads
notes a number of ways weather impacts on road maintenance costs:

• rainfall
• moisture
• salinity
• high water tables
• high temperatures
• rising sea levels & storm surges on coastal roads.

Indirect impacts of climate change, such as alterations in the location of population and human activity, are also likely to affect the demand for roads.

A study on the effects of climate change on sewerage infrastructure by CSIRO and Melbourne Water examined Melbourne’s water, sewerage and drainage systems ‘in combination’ in what is believed to quite ‘ground breaking’. As a result the Victorian Government is drawing up a new strategy for the greater Melbourne area, examining:

• water conservation
• recycling
• aquifer storage
• stormwater harvesting
• desalination plants.

Finally, some CSIRO indications of increased electricity demand:

• An average temperature increase of just one degree will increase peak electricity demand in Adelaide and Brisbane by between 2 – 5%;
• Heating gas requirements in Sydney and Melbourne would fall slightly;
• An average temperature increase of 2-3 degrees could increase electricity demand by 3-15% in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne and slightly decrease peak demand in Sydney.
• An increase of 4 or more degrees, at the upper end of the forecast projections, would increase peak electricity demand by up to 255 in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne.
• Peak demand in Sydney would be unchanged.

Some questions:

• What ARE our leaders doing about planning?
• What IS the media doing to bring these issues to the people?
• Doesn’t the whole energy debate need to be brought more into the public arena and related to everyday living?