City Council policy to address Climate Change

Always good to check if any Australian City Councils are taking actions and setting targets despite the dangerous attitude of our Federal Governments.

Melbourne City Council has an Urban Forest Strategy to increase markedly its tree coverage across the city (remembering this is the inner city council – who knows what the rest are doing!).

To quote from their website

Melbourne’s tree population is vast – we have 70,000 council-owned trees, worth around $650 million. Trees are a defining part of Melbourne. We live in the world’s most liveable city and our parks, gardens, green spaces and tree-lined streets contribute enormously to this status.

But the trees are now under threat. More than a decade of drought, severe water restrictions and periods of extreme heat, combined with an ageing tree stock, have put our trees under immense stress and many are now in a state of accelerated decline.

As a result, we expect to lose 27 per cent of our current tree population in the next decade and 44 per cent in the next 20 years.

Combined with this loss, Melbourne’s urban forest is facing two significant future challenges: climate change and urban growth.

Click here for the link to their site.

Meanwhile in New South Wales – there is this report from 2013:

Green spaces, trees and bodies of water are must-have design features for future development in Sydney’s suburbs after researchers found that by 2050 global warming combined with Sydney’s urban heat island effect could increase temperatures by up to 3.7°C.

The researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science found new urban developments, such as the multitude of new estates on Sydney edges expected to house more than 100,000 residents, were prone to the greatest temperature increases.

Click here for the report.

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Paul Costigan, 17 June 2014