Marion Council renews partnership to tackle climate change

Marion Council has renewed its partnership with 3 neighbouring councils in the southern region of Adelaide to tackle climate change alongside the State Government over the next 5 years.

Resilient South is a partnership between the Cities of Holdfast Bay, Marion, Mitcham, and Onkaparinga and the State Government aimed at strengthening resilience against climate change in the southern Adelaide region.

Operating since 2011, a new agreement has just been signed extending the partnership until 2029.

Local government acknowledges that human-induced climate change is occurring, and that urgent, ambitious, and immediate action is required at all levels of government to address the climate crisis.

"Climate change is happening whether we like it or not, so continuing to share resources with other councils to make our roads, facilities and reserves more resilient is a good idea," Mayor of Marion Kris Hanna said.

The goal of Resilient South is to work together to implement emissions reduction and climate change response planning, programs and actions.

This is reflected in the Regional Climate Action Plan (ReCAP) which was recently developed after extensive consultation with the community and adopted by all Resilient South partners.

Promoting climate resilient and low emissions development, enhancing green spaces and reducing council and community greenhouse gas emissions were among the top priorities residents flagged during public consultation.

The ReCAP contains 49 actions across four focal areas:

• • Growing cooler, greener, biodiverse environments
  • Creating climate resilient neighbourhoods
  • Transitioning towards a low-carbon region
  • Reducing climate risk

These actions are designed to be pragmatic and outcome-focused, highlighting areas where it makes sense to work together.

By working together we can more effectively manage our networked infrastructure like roads and active transport routes, catchments and stormwater, and our network of parks and reserves.

Resilient South is widely regarded as being on the leading edge of climate adaptation work nationally, with a number of flagship projects including:

• The Resilient Asset Management Program - leading the integration of climate risk into the management of ~$5B in community assets in our region.
• The Future Trees Project, assessing the vulnerability of our public trees to climate and biosecurity threats, and making recommendations on how our urban forest can be made more resilient.

"The State Government is pleased to continue collaborating with local councils on climate change adaptation," Minister for Climate, Environment and Water Susan Close MP said.

"Effective and well-informed adaptation to climate change is critical for our communities, environment and industries to remain safe, sustainable and prosperous into the future."

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