Council Roles and Responsibilities relating to climate change

Climate change has been raised in priority for councils forming strategic plans through inclusion in the Local Government Act ​2020 Part 2 (division 1). To achieve good governance, Council decisions MUST promote the overall sustainability of the municipal district, including mitigation and planning for climate change risks. In addition, the Victorian Climate Change Act 2017 requires consideration of climate change in municipal public health planning.
This webpage compiles some recent documents and presentations to aid in understanding the risks of climate change and its bearing on Council's role and decisions..
RThe Victorian government has published two guidance documents to assist include climate change consideration in key decisions, These will be relevant for Councils in 2021 as they form the municipal Strategic Plan and the Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan (MHWP). The guidance also applies to Council planning decision and forward asset planning.
(1) DELWP "Local Government Climate Change Adaptation Roles and Responsibilities under Victorian Legislation". This document was in part based on research at Australian National University and RMIT, "Legislative Analysis and Community Consultation Report"
(2) DHHS "Tackling climate change and its impacts on health through municipal public health and wellbeing planning". This document shows the holistic impacts of climate change on community health and how this should be included while forming the MHWP.
One of the researchers and authors of the DELWP guidance, Dr Tayanah O'Donnell of ANU presented to the GBGA, at its meeting of December 17, 2019. The DELWP guidance paper primarily focused on ADAPTATION to expected climate conditions. The cost of adaptive action will rise with higher temperatures, and limiting mean temperature rise to less than 2 degrees, and preferably 1.5 degrees, will limit the cost of adaptation. Projected climate impacts for the GBGA regions can be accessed by the link button.
​Dr O'Donnell discusses the key issues to consider in Council decisions.

In the video link, key Climate Risk Consultant, Sarah Barker of Minter Ellison, also explains the multiple risks of not taking mitigation action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the rise of temperature.  Councils face regulatory, financial, insurance, asset, public health and reputation risks. This broadly impacts council operations including finance and insurance markets, asset damage, community services, emergency planning and response, local economies and policy approaches.