2023-01-16 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                  16 JANUARY 2023


The Corporate Plan also has a specific key focus area to ‘embed risk management practices into
decision making processes.’ With this comes the 20-year goal for ‘best practice risk management
practices are embedded in decision making.’ This project, and future work arising from this project,
aim to implement best-practice climate risk management practices for Council and the community
we serve, as well as to continue to embed climate risk management into decision-making, policies
and procedures at Council.
CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE POLICY
On the 21 December 2017, Council endorsed the Climate Change Response Policy. This policy
highlights the risks posed by a changing climate, and declares that “it is critical that Council adopts
a long-term proactive approach regarding these risks to help improve and build the adaptive
capacity of our Shire.” The Policy recognises that “proactive planning for climate-related risks
includes ensuring appropriate development requirements, adequate infrastructure planning,
effective disaster management, good asset management and appropriate governance systems are
established and implemented.” As outlined in the Policy, the objectives to mitigate and adapt to
climate change all inherently aim to reduce climate risks.
CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE PLAN
Council’s Climate Change Response Plan (CCRP) was endorsed by Council on 19 August 2021.
This project aligns with the CCRP’s Theme 1 – Strong Leadership & Governance and the following
strategic priorities:
     Strategic Priority 1.3 to “move Council from business-as-usual operations to adopting deep,
      systemic change and being a powerful influencer and example of climate action” and
      associated specific actions
     Strategic Priority 1.2 to “strengthen partnerships with governments and stakeholders to take
      urgent action to achieve a low carbon economy and resilient community”
      o      Includes the specific action to “develop collaborations with other local governments to
             address climate risks and help build a low carbon economy. This includes developing
             a regional climate action roadmap for the broader Sunshine Coast region…”
The project also aligns with Theme 2 – Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and the strategic
priority 2.3 to “develop a climate-aware and empowered community for reducing climate risks and
emissions”. It also aligns with Theme 7 – Resilient and Adaptive Communities and Built
Environment and its associated strategic priorities and specific actions.
Highlights
Some of the key highlights from this project include:
     Use of IPCC’s climate risk framework in this project is seen as best-practice in climate risk
      management.
     Partnering with the climate change team at Sunshine Coast Council has been very beneficial
      as it has built strong relationships that increase our capacity to respond to a “super wicked”
      problem such as climate change. It has also led to cost efficiencies and a number of other
      collaborative projects that improve our resilience to climate change.
     This project was a QCRC Pilot Project – one of only two across the State, setting Council up
      as a leader in this space
     Establishing a Regional Youth Climate Leadership Group for long-term engagement on
      climate change response. This important engagement led to the development of the Youth
      Statement on Climate Change which has been submitted to Council with a request to share
      more broadly through appropriate channels.
     Establishing a Roadmap and an accompanying Statement of Intent which captures the
      learnings and outcomes of the year-long project and outlines our commitment to collaborate
      at the regional level and work with the community, key sectors and other levels of government

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