Sweltering Cities welcomes the launch of the Greater Sydney Heat Smart City Plan. This ambitious multi-sectoral collaboration aims to ensure the communities of Greater Sydney are protected and can prosper and thrive during extreme heat and a hotter climate.
We know that heatwaves are Australia’s deadliest natural disaster. In addition to their public health toll, extreme heat has economic costs of over $1 billion in Western Sydney alone, affecting businesses, productivity, and worryingly, exacerbating cost of living pressures.
Heatwaves can no longer be seen as a normal part of summer. In Western Sydney, cooling costs are expected to rise by 44% per household due to the increased need for air conditioning. At the same time, 65% of respondents in our Summer Survey said concerns about cost prevent people from turning on their cooling systems.
The Plan consists of six elements, along with 40 recommendations, to build a heat-resilient Greater Sydney:
- Heart Smart Decisions: collaborative decision-making and monitoring of heat risk.
- Heat Smart Places for People: safe homes and buildings, as well as integrating heat mitigation and adaptation in planning.
- Heat Smart Economies: private sector responsibility and heat risk planning in workplaces.
- Heat Smart Infrastructure: resilient infrastructure that allows communities to survive and thrive.
- Heatwave Ready: governance arrangements and community empowerment to build resilience, reduce risks, and manage emergencies.
- Heat Smart Research: collaborative research to deliver solutions.
You can read the full plan here. We spoke to the ABC about the plan and mandating rental minimum standards for cooling, which is a key recommendation.
Sweltering Cities, as a member of the Greater Sydney Heat Taskforce, helped co-design this Plan over the last 18 months. Our focus is to ensure that community voices and decision-making are heard and prioritised in the pathway to a sustainable and equitable future under a warming climate.
We look forward to working closely with Taskforce members to turn this Plan into a reality and make a tangible impact on communities. Congratulations to the amazing teams at WSROC and Resilient Sydney who sheparded this work from conception to launch. Their vision for the city will have real tangible benefits for people across all of Sydney.
