Climate change is undeniably the most urgent issue facing humanity. While the Paris Climate Agreement made progress in bringing about international collaboration, for Australia, outcomes at the national level remain uncertain. Nevertheless, the growing involvement of local governments in climate action is encouraging. Not only are the impacts most keenly experienced at this level, there is greater opportunity for control. This is particularly so as a range of non-climate-related co-benefits of climate change mitigation are available at this level. These co-benefits motivate governments to frame climate change mitigation in a positive light to operationalise broader economic, social, health and environmental benefits of low-carbon policies within the concept of sustainable development. Despite substantial evidence for co-benefits, their policy impact remains limited and under-developed. This thesis investigates local governments’ understandings of the ‘co-benefits approach’ in planning for climate change. It provides a systematic understanding of local policy context to plan, generate and purposively integrate co-benefits into the policy-decision-making processes.

A methodology was developed to analyse the use of co-benefits in local government climate-related policies in New South Wales from July 2015 to May 2016. Investigation comprised three phases: a targeted on-line survey; review of councils’ climate-related policies; and in-depth interviewing of council officers. The on-line survey provides an informative overview of the factors that drive local action on climate change. The narratives generated from the interviews take this further revealing in-depth insights into policy-makers’ perceptions about the role of each factor, as well as an understanding of motivations for the uptake of co-benefits in policy.

The thesis found that climate change mitigation is primarily driven by the dual objectives of reducing emissions and energy consumption. A focus on monetary considerations, together with constrained authority, policy and legislative support from higher levels of government, absence of data and know-how to assess co-benefits collectively, are key influences. As a consequence, most councils target only certain (quantifiable) benefits from ‘energy-related’ mitigation measures. This excludes significant health-related benefits. A broader policy direction from state to local government is required to facilitate adoption of a co-benefits framework by local government. This will enable councils to more readily consider non-climatic and non-energy-related benefits of low carbon measures.

This thesis contributes a clearer understanding of local governments’ current use of the co-benefits approach in tackling climate change. This will help to purposively consider, plan, generate and promote co-benefits in planning for climate change in Australia by decision-makers.