Webinar to drill down into climate costs and risks for LG

A new report covering climate change impacts, challenges and risks facing Australian councils will be unpacked in a webinar being held next week.

The report, “Neighbourhood issue: climate costs and risks for councils”, was prepared by the Climate Council and Cities Power Partnership and will be released on 22 September.

The virtual briefing will examine key findings that every council in Australia should be across, including:

  • Why climate change is an immense challenge for all levels of government, but its impacts are felt most acutely at the local level;
  • How worsening extreme weather, driven by climate change, is compounding costs for councils. This includes mounting damage to council-owned assets, rising insurance premiums and increasing liability risks;
  • The barriers for councils in taking greater action on climate risks with dozens of local case studies;
  • A full suite of recommendations to better address climate change and associated risks for local, state/territory and federal governments; and
  • The opportunities and benefits for councils to act on climate change.

Click here to register for the webinar, which will be held on 23 September from 2-3pm AEST.

In other webinar news, ICLEI Oceania is staging the third webinar in its CitiesWithNature series: Partnering with Traditional Owners for Restoring Nature.

The webinar will explore ways for councils to work more effectively with their traditional owners for protecting and restoring nature, and will be of great interest to both elected members and council practitioners.

Register here for the event, which will feature speakers from Cairns, Yarra Ranges and Adelaide.  

The next presentation in the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) webinar series will focus on environmental flows across the basin, including who makes decisions about when, where and how much water is released for the environment.

Presenters from the MDBA and both the Commonwealth and Victorian Environmental Water Holders will discuss:

  • why the environment needs water;
  • how water for the environment is allocated and delivered;
  • the importance for improving river health;
  • the roles and responsibilities of the MDBA and other agencies; and 
  • progress and outcomes achieved so far including case studies from the Northern Basin and Hattah Lakes.

There will be a moderated Q&A session as part of the Water for the Environment webinar, which will be held at 10am AEST on 21 September. 

A Roads Australia policy webinar on 22 September will consider how technology can help address the challenges of modernising the way we use, manage and pay for roads.

It will also canvass what a nationally consistent, demand-based transport network pricing regime could look like in Australia.

Click here to register for the webinar, which runs from 4.30-5.30pm AEST.