The Clean Town and City Project is an integrated look at how transforming our local built environments to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce our carbon footprint, helps us to build beautiful places, jobs and communities in WA.

At a community and local government level there is a lot of interest in how we can improve our cities so we’re better able to adapt to the effects of climate change and to reduce our impact on the environment.

Whilst protecting the environment, oceans, native bushland, and species biodiversity are essential to combating climate change, many climate change models do not include the urban environment (Lei, Zhao, et al., Nature Climate Change, vol. 11, pp. 152-157, Feb 2021).

The question we have to answer is how can we build and transform Cities and Towns in such a way that we reduce CO2 production both in the construction process, and during our daily lives through activities such as cooling our homes, moving around our suburbs, and keeping ourselves healthy.

We need to integrate all aspects of climate change adaptation and mitigation to ensure we create effective solutions. To only focus on one aspect, such as energy generation without, for example, looking at how to use that energy more efficiently, or who gets access to clean energy, means that the approach is piecemeal, potentially unjust, and likely to be less effective.

The key to urban climate adaptation and mitigation is INTEGRATION. This includes not only practical solutions, leading to new industries and employment, changes to infrastructure and the environment, but also changing attitudes, social & cultural norms, and values.