This paper outlines a place-based approach to enabling climate adaptation and resilience across community service organisations (CSOs) and local governments in Melbourne particularly in areas experiencing socio-ecological disadvantage.

In the late 1990s a group of Victorian local government councils addressed a sustainability void in the building codes and planning regulations by developing capacity to implement Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) via the planning system. What began as a collection of largely independent initiatives progressed...

This project analysed the role of building and planning policy and regulations in delivering sustainable buildings and cities. It reviews policy and best practice, analyses VCAT data and cases, and draws on focus group results.

Recent research highlights an ongoing lack of systematic and rigorous adaptation planning in Australia. The need to improve problem framing was identified, along with a requirement to better integrate local adaptation into social, urban and regional planning, and into emergency management and sustainable development efforts.

This presents findings from a review of low carbon initiatives in Australia with a particular focus on Melbourne, Victoria exploring the policy context in which these initiatives and responses have emerged, the typical approaches adopted and the implications for urban change and governance.