Why has a new strategy been developed when there were already existing strategies and action plans in place?
The draft Strategy will replace the following existing strategies and action plans:
Each of these strategies and plans were due for final or mid-point review between 2023 and 2025. To streamline administrative processes and maximise our ability to effectively undertake actions within each of these plans it was identified that a streamlined Strategy was the best way to focus Council’s climate activities and investments.
A review of actions across the existing strategies and plans has been undertaken to prioritise those that best align with the feedback from Council to date on its climate priorities and with reference to the strategic priorities set out in Council’s draft Strategic Plan 2024-2028. The draft Strategy includes themes from all existing plans updated to reflect Council priorities.
I commented on the Let’s Step it Up Climate Action engagement last year, do I need to comment on the draft Integrated Climate Strategy?
The development of the draft Integrated Climate Strategy 2030 has taken into account feedback received as part of the previous engagement, however as it now proposes goals and targets and more specific actions for the Council to undertake across a resilient, protected, and sustainable city, we encourage new submissions on these elements.
How can my input influence the decision?
Your input will inform the finalisation of the Integrated Climate Strategy and enable Council to proceed with implementation of the outcomes sought.
Who is the new integrated strategy for and what is its role?
The new Integrated Climate Strategy is for anyone who can contribute to achieving a resilient, protected, and sustainable Adelaide.
The City of Adelaide has already been highly successful in reducing its own operational emissions to carbon neutral. This means that Council has taken action to reduce emissions across the services and facilities it provides for the city such as transport, lighting, waste management and building performance and offset the remaining emissions.
The next phase of action for the city is focused on how Council can continue to reduce its emissions and how it can support others in the community to take action. The strategy will outline how we collectively as a Council, community, businesses and institutions can continue to reduce our impact on the climate and improve our sustainable city.
Our city can only become resilient, protected and sustainable if we all work together!
How does this fit with the City of Adelaide Strategic Plan 2024-2028?
The Integrated Climate Strategy 2030 addresses the aspirations under Our Environment: Resilient, protected and sustainable pillar within the City of Adelaide Strategic Plan 2024-2028.
These aspirations are that in ten years Adelaide will be a nation leading Green City in a Park showcasing the benefits of green infrastructure, increased biodiversity and sustainability and a community that is adaptive and resilient to climate change.
How can I take action as an individual or local business?
All city users can reduce carbon emissions, whether in an organisation, through supply chains, sharing knowledge, or in the home.
Find out more about how to play your part as a household or a business, from efficient, all electric buildings to separating organic waste and more.
Get support to mind your business and act sustainably:
Together we all contribute to a smart, green, liveable and creative city.
What do we mean by climate hazards?
Climate hazards are adverse conditions or events resulting from a climate change. Within the City of Adelaide, climate hazards are typically the impacts felt by the community from extreme weather events such as, increased hot weather or heat waves, unseasonable rainfall, storm events, flooding, and high wind speeds.
What do we mean by ‘urban heat island effect’ or UHI?
Urban heat island effect is where urban environments such as buildings, roads and bare space, cause the average temperature to rise in already hot conditions compared to neighbouring areas. In the City of Adelaide, temperatures in the urban environment can be as much as 8 degrees Celsius hotter than in the surrounding Adelaide Park Lands. The difference in temperature is caused by heat captured in built infrastructure like roads, footpaths and buildings, and heat emitted from sources such as vehicles and air-conditioning units. The City of Adelaide through Resilient East has undertaken thermal mapping which identifies where heat builds up across the City and where hotspots and heat islands are, the data can be viewed here.
What do we mean by ‘canopy cover’?
Canopy cover is the area of land covered by leaves, branches and stems of trees when viewed from above. Canopy cover provides a cooling effect by shading or sheltering the area below/surrounding and provides evaporative cooling through the air. The City of Adelaide through Resilient East has collected LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data to understand the City’s canopy cover and this data can be viewed here.
What do we mean by ‘Water Sensitive Urban Design’ or WSUD?
Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is a set of principles that can be applied to sustainably manage water within urban areas and support healthy ecosystems. The natural water cycle in towns and cities has been disrupted by buildings, roads, and stormwater drainage pipes, which prevents rainfall from soaking into the ground and recharging local waterways and groundwater, instead the runoff is sent straight into the nearest creek. The rainfall runoff also becomes polluted by rubbish, leaves and dirt and the health of the creek environment is negatively impacted. WSUD aims to slow the flow, prevent pollution and enable water to once again naturally support plants and trees as it once did using modern urban features such as raingardens, swales and rainwater tanks.
What do we mean by ‘micro-mobility’?
Micromobility refers to lightweight, small size and small footprint (so low impact) vehicles designed for short trips travelled at low speeds. They include devices such as bikes, e-bikes, and scooters.
The South Australian Government is reviewing the use of personal mobility devices (PMD): electric personal transporters including e-scooters, e-skateboards and single wheel self-balancing devices. Currently, e-scooters can only be legally used on public roads if they are rented from a fleet operator (part of a shared micromobility scheme).
What do we mean by ‘remnant’ species?
Remnant species are species of animal, plant or fungi that remain or have survived since European colonisation. This extends to groups of species - ecological communities – that make up the living part of ecosystems.
Remnant species, subspecies and ecological communities are extremely precious. They are often endemic (unique) to a region and teach us about the cultural and natural heritage of a region. They also refer to First Nations land management, hold unique genetic information, and allow species interactions that are specific to their region (e.g. flower blossoms coinciding with the emergence of unique pollinators).
Remnant systems are also often the most likely to survive and thrive with minimal intervention (fertiliser, irrigation) as they have evolved/survived with the local soil, sun, seasonal and rainfall conditions.
What do we mean by ‘circular economy'’?
A circular economy is a methodology to use resources in a cyclical manner, keeping them at their highest value, effectively removing the concept of ‘waste’.
Carbon neutral, net zero emissions, low carbon – what's the difference?
A community, place or activity is carbon neutral if, on balance, it does not contribute to climate change. Achieving carbon neutrality involves reducing carbon emissions as much as possible, then balancing any remaining emissions with activity that “offsets” these emissions. These offsets can include activities that remove emissions from the atmosphere, such as tree planting and “direct air capture” technologies (essentially big fans that draw carbon dioxide out of the air). They can also include activities that prevent emissions being generated in the first place, such as clean energy projects which prevent the need to burn fossil fuels.
Net zero emissions is often used interchangeably with carbon neutral but is more narrowly defined. Net zero emissions refers specifically to achieving an overall balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced (which includes gases other than just carbon dioxide) and greenhouse gas emissions removed from the atmosphere. It cannot be achieved through offsets that prevent greenhouse gas emissions from being released.
Low carbon is a broad term reflecting the end goal in achieving carbon neutrality. A low carbon city is one where everyone is working together to reduce emissions as much possible to limit the offsets needed to be carbon neutral or net zero.
