Health Co-Benefits of Low Carbon Policies in the Built Environment: An Australian Investigation into Local Government Co-Benefits Policies
Purpose: Evidence suggests that in the area of public health,action on climate change can bring multiple health co-benefits.In Australia,while the co-benefits approach is adopted by local governments in pursuing low carbon policies,the approach is limited in targeting certain energy-related monetary benefits.Non-climatic and nonenergy-related benefits,which include significant health-related gains,rarely enter climate change-related policy discourse.This paper addresses the gap by contributing to current understanding of the co-benefits approach in the Australian local government context.The aim is to determine whether,how and to what extent local governments low carbon policies embrace the public health needs of their communities by targeting health-related co-benefits as an integral part of broader sustainable development strategies.The paper also provides an insight into the Australian local government policy context to enable better understanding of how to plan,generate and promote health-related co-benefits for urban built environments.Methodology: The research methods comprised a comprehensive online survey and review of NSW councils climate change-related policies,as well as interviews of selected council officers.Findings: The findings show that NSW local governments climate change-related policies rarely consider whether their greenhouse gas reduction strategies also yield health co-benefits.In many instances,the net co-benefits of health are not identified,let alone measured by local governments.In the majority of councils,climate planning activities and work on public health are happening separately and in parallel,rather than through an integrated approach.Conclusions: The results of this study suggest the need for a clear policy direction from the State to local governments to link climate change planning with health; inter-agency coordination and training to conduct health analyses; development of tools,methods for identifying,quantifying,and incorporating health-related co-benefits; and regulatory or statutory changes to support actions in certain areas which are currently beyond local governments sphere of control.
Australia built environment climate change health co-benefits health and wellbeing liveability local government low carbon policy urban planning
Sardar Masud KARIM Susan THOMPSON Peter WILLIAMS
The University of New South Wales(UNSW),Australia
国际会议
2017世界可持续建筑环境大会(the World Sustainable Built Environment Conference)
香港
英文
2406-2417
2017-06-05（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）