Time to combat Climate Change

Dr Ken Marriott believes it’s time for leisure and recreation planners and providers to drive effective action on climate change

Image courtesy 2021 Climate Council report: Rising to the challenge: addressing climate and security in our region.

It is now known with a high degree of certainty that climate change and the severe ravages of ‘weather change’ that this brings, will irreparably damage and change the world in less than the next 50 years. The 2018 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted potentially ‘catastrophic’ and long term impacts lasting ‘for centuries to millennia’ with the impacts projected to vary in intensity across different parts of the earth. Impacts include higher global temperatures, greater temperature extremes, increases in the frequency, intensity and amount of heavy rain, greater flooding, increases in the frequency and intensity of drought, sea level rises of 0.26 to 0.77 metres by 2100 (with rises to continue well beyond that year), species loss and extinction on land and in the oceans, increased ocean acidity and reduced oxygen, ice shelf melting and an ice-free Arctic. From a human perspective, there are projected to be severe impacts on health, livelihoods, water supply, food security, human security and economic development.

The 2018 report has now been endorsed and strengthened by a further Intergovernmental Panel summary report, released in mid 2021, with the full report due in late 2022. The 2021 report has prompted a UN ‘red alert’ for life on earth (IPCC, 2021). It predicts that the 1.50C global temperature increase projected to be reached by 2050 could now be reached within nine years. It also indicates that change is occurring faster than predicted and that the impacts will be more severe than projected. The report provides details down to the level of specific sub-regions in Australia and will be carried forward to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) to be held in Glasgow later in 2021. Unless dramatic and far reaching action to reduce greenhouse gases is agreed to at that conference, the impacts of climate change could take hundreds if not thousands of years to overcome.

Research by the Australian Climate Council (2021) and the Australian Academy of Science (2021) endorse the IPCC findings, the latter arguing that ‘the only way to reduce the risk of…unpredictable and dangerous (climate change) outcomes is…a substantial reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere’ (Australian Academy of Science, 2021) The Academy argues that unless urgent action is taken, the world could well warm by 30C or more by 2100, double the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change objective of 1.50C. Ahead of the rest of the world, and one of the regions expected to be most severely hit by the already-emerging changes, Australia has already warmed by 1.40 degrees.

What is of major concern is that even if the world reaches net zero emissions by the UN target of 2050 or sooner, the atmosphere will still hold trillions of tonnes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases which will continue to create global warming. It has been estimated that ‘drawdown’ of these gases at a rate of 10 billion tonnes annually will be needed up to 2050 if not until 2100 to start to achieve stability. Reafforestation, cessation of land clearance, ocean greenhouse gases capture, soil biology improvements and technology-driven carbon capture and storage will be critical to drawdown. Unfortunately, natural processes are slow while technology-driven techniques have yet to move beyond the experimental stage, despite Australian government assertions to the contrary. The world’s most advanced project to date, based on the Gorgon gas fields off the Western Australian coast, is designed to capture and bury 80% of CO2 mining emissions (but not those from gas liquifying processes). In mid July 2021 it was announced that the scheme had captured little more than half its initial five year target of 9.6 million tonnes. Critically, that is from mining operations where CO2 concentrations are as much as 15%. In the open atmosphere, where concentrations are generally only 0.04%, the process is much more difficult and the gases captured have still to be compressed and stored or transshipped to be used for other industrial purposes.

This paper argues that there is now a critical urgency for leisure and recreation planners to take more targeted action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, to adapt existing leisure

and recreation facilities, programs and services so they can better deal with climate and weather change conditions, and to take still further actions to avoid these impacts in future. What has been done to date is not sufficient.

Local Government Action on Climate Change: A Review A preliminary review of the climate change policies and documents published on-line by a sample of Australian local government authorities identified some positive and some concerning findings. The review was undertaken as part of a wider paper prepared by the author to provide a framework for leisure and recreation planners and providers to ensure they work to mitigate climate change, adapt to it and where possible, avoid it.

The Councils selected for the review included a state capital city, suburban metropolitan councils, and regional inland and coastal councils across Australia’s three eastern mainland states. They were selected because of their differing geographic situations, their varying action capacities, and the often quite distinct climate change challenges they faced. The review found: •Excellent and often quite extensive work has been done by some Councils in preparing both ‘generalist’ and issue/site specific climate change policies and action guidelines. This is especially so in capital cities and larger metropolitan Councils. Several exemplary reports warrant promotion as models for other Councils •In proactive Councils, there is generally a good level of awareness of and affiliation with regional, state, national and international bodies concerned with addressing climate change, and •There have been significant initiatives on some mitigation activities including in particular, tree planting, greenbelts and parkland plantings; installation of solar energy systems on municipal buildings; management of water use; harvesting and re-use to reduce consumption; community education and engagement programs, and greenhouse gas emissions measurement and monitoring.

At the same time however, the review found that: •Some rural Councils are still at the point of questioning climate change science and debating whether action should be taken. These generally do not have climate change policies. Others have natural disaster action plans - with no links to climate change - while still others are in the process of developing what appear to be quite sophisticated and advanced policies (but have no published documents at present). Several Councils were reviewing and updating past policies, a number of which are as much as eight to 10 years old •Regional and rural Councils regularly prepare ‘state of the environment’ and environmental sustainability reports mandated by state legislation but do not have climate change policies or action plans as part of these. The same applies to their water management, energy use and waste management policies •Some regional Councils have developed broad policies designed to strengthen disaster resilience and to help with recovery from what are seen as ‘natural disasters’, rather than ‘extreme’ or ‘hazardous’ conditions created by climate and weather change. In these instances, particular emphasis is put on disaster management, water security, natural area management and coastal erosion and inundation. In general, specific action plans in response to known local or regional climate change threats were not identified, suggesting a lack of detailed local knowledge and/or a lack of the technical capacity to design appropriate actions as implied by Australian Disaster Resilience Index analyses. This suggests a need for greater

Greening Darwin Strategy. Image courtesy City of Darwin.

support and guidance from higher levels of government and other relevant agencies and organisations eg: via Emergency Management Australia •It would appear that quite a few Councils are working in isolation on climate change issues when they would benefit substantially from regional support and cooperation, including use of the work of Emergency Management Australia •Some regional and rural Councils use external consultants and agencies to prepare reports on climate change and environmental management progress and compliance as they do not have in-house expertise. This is of concern as there is a danger of ‘template’ and ‘tick the boxes’ style reporting, of issues being given insufficient attention and of limited community engagement. Further, climate change and environmental management can be all too easily overlooked between mandated reporting periods •Most of the policies and many of the initiatives taken by Councils are ‘generic’ in nature and could have been taken by any Council across Australia. This most probably reflects the view that ‘any action is better than no action’ and the earlier point that many Councils are uncertain as to what specific local actions they should prioritise, can afford and what outcomes these would achieve. While the generic nature of action is not a problem in itself and allows for some useful inter-Council comparisons, the lack of action on known local issues is of concern as locally-emerging crises could well be overlooked and not responded to •Climate change initiatives that have been taken, focus largely on broad scale mitigation –such as installation of solar power and tree planting-- while local adaption and avoidance strategies are overlooked. While again unquestionably invaluable action, it is a further reflection of the uncertainty as to the most important or effective specific local actions and the greater ease of taking mitigation action •The implementation of policy driven initiatives occurs on a case by case basis and there are few ‘industry/portfolio’ action plans or programs. To illustrate, rather than developing climate action policies for the leisure and recreation industry, for infrastructure development, for local businesses, for health and community services or (in rural areas) or for farming and water management, Councils tend to pick off issues that they can readily deal with. While important in terms of climate change mitigation, these initiatives do not add up to a comprehensive policy. Of greater concern is that this approach tends to create a Council-only or Council-focused process and program of action and there is limited guidance for organisations other than the Councils themselves in terms of what they should do to contribute to the overall municipal effort on mitigation, adaption or avoidance, and •In the context of the present paper, none of the Councils reviewed had a specific leisure and recreation planning and development climate action policy. While references were made to problematic leisure and recreation situations caused by climate change (such as damage to playing fields due to drought or extremely wet weather), none of the suggested actions (such as assessing the option for installing synthetic playing fields) were tied back to climate change.

In overview, while some good work is being done on climate change by local government authorities, too much would appear to be symbolic and does not appear to follow a systematic, integrated plan: there is clearly a long way to go.

Overcoming the Local Government Shortcomings The paucity of what could be described as climate change policies at local government level that are up to date and up to the science is of real concern. Even more so, the lack of initiatives and of a package of policies relating specifically to leisure and recreation planning and provision must be deemed to be a substantive deficiency given the hundreds of millions of

Solar Powered Tweed Shire Council Facilities

dollars spent on leisure and recreation opportunities every year and particularly, given the urgency of action.

To overcome the deficiency, it is recommended that leisure planners and providers follow six sequential steps in addressing climate change. The steps, for which comprehensive action plans are spelt out in the full report, are: 1.Establish information baselines, values, goals and objectives 2.Build awareness of climate change 3.Take action to reduce or mitigate the projected severity of climate change 4.Reduce climate change impacts on existing leisure and recreation facilities, programs and services 5.Avoid the impacts of climate change, and 6.Evaluate the performance and success of the actions that are taken in steps 1-5.

These six steps explain the need to understand what assets we have at present and the threats they face; the need to ensure that the community and users of leisure and recreation resources understand the threats and the urgency for action; the actions that can be taken to reduce climate change, to reduce and hopefully, minimise the impacts on existing and future resources, and the critical need to evaluate what is done so that the optimal outcomes are achieved and the lessons learned can be carried forward to the future.

Conclusion Unless leisure and recreation planners understand the details and implications of the research into climate change and take action in keeping with the six recommended steps, there is considerable danger that they will continue to contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases, thereby contributing to climate change. They will also fail to mitigate climate change and they will miss significant opportunities to both adapt to it and avoid some of its worst impacts.

Dr Ken Marriott trained as a geographer with special studies in urban land uses, agriculture and climatology.

Having, in 1979, completed a PhD in geography at Monash University, with his research focused on the effectiveness of then-current leisure and recreation planning strategies he went on to be Managing Director of the leisure planning consultancy HM Leisure Planning Pty Ltd from 1984 until his retirement in 2016.

His book, Community Leisure and Recreation Planning, co-authored with John Tower and Katie McDonald, was published by Routledge early in 2021.

The full paper is published on the Australasian Leisure Management website and can be obtained at no cost via email at ken.marriott@hmleisureplanning.com