Creating a liveable future: Our cities under net zero

Climate action is an opportunity to enrich our cities, workplaces and homes, but collaboration between governments, businesses, and the community will be essential to achieve this, a leading engineer says.

“The biggest challenge we face in progressing to net zero is to translate our ambitions into a plan and then find an execution strategy,” Chair of Building 4.0 CRC, a research initiative co-funded by the federal government, Dr Bronwyn Evans AM says.

“To reach a just and innovative transition we have to create the forums for questioning, for listening, for education on what the challenges are for everyone. Ultimately our transition has to make sure that our communities can thrive, are affordable and are liveable.”

Dr Evans will be part of the Climate: A vision for a liveable future session at Governance Institute’s National Conference which will be held in Melbourne and virtually on 12 September. Other speakers include UK Cities Climate Investment Commission Chair, Professor Greg Clark CBE and Orizontas Partner, Patrick Gibbons.

The panel will consider how climate change will shape the re-design and transformation of place and space and examine how business and government can use climate action as an opportunity to enrich habitat, life experience, consumption, and value.

Looking forward at what our future cities might look like, Dr Evans said the future city is a “connected city”.

“[A future city will have] connected communications, connected transportation, connected energy, connected green spaces, and connected neighbourhoods.

“A future city uses the best technologies to enshrine our net zero (and even negative) carbon economy and community. That means always building, sharing and adopting the best solutions wherever they occur.”

• The Climate: A vision for a liveable future panel session will be sponsored by Governance Institute of Australia’s National Conference 2022 platinum sponsor Diligent. To learn more about the key findings of Forrester Total Economic Impact Report of Diligent ESG which delivered a 167% ROI, download a copy here.