With summer now in full swing, forty organisations have collaborated on a plan for Sydney's escalating heat challenge. Led by the Greater Sydney Heat Taskforce and guided by academic experts, the newly published Greater Sydney Heat Smart City Plan received input from local councils, state authorities and nation-wide organisations in health, environment, urban planning and business, across both public and private sectors.
Chair of the Greater Sydney Heat Taskforce Kerry Robinson said, "Heat has killed more Australians than fire, flood and storms combined, and has far-reaching impacts on community wellbeing, the economy, infrastructure and the environment."
The plan notes that between 2012 and 2022, extreme heat was responsible for up to 84 percent of weather related hospitalisations - a figure which is expected to increase with climate change.
Additionally, Robinson noted that the estimated "cost of heatwaves in Western Sydney alone is $1.4 billion per year and growing. These costs impact businesses, households and government services. We can't afford not to act."
In response to what Robinson describes as "Australia's most deadly natural hazard," the five-year Greater Sydney Heat Smart City Plan outlines six key directions and forty recommendations for building a heat-resilient city.
These include:
The plan is a joint initiative of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSOC) and Resilient Sydney, and was jointly funded by the state and federal governments through the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund.
Moving forward, the taskforce will seek to work with its partners to implement the actions of the plan.
