The Jesuit Social Services’ Centre for Just Places has released an action plan outlining what needs to happen to help western organisations adapt to ongoing climate injustices.
The culmination of more than 12 months of work through the Mobilising Climate Just and Resilient Communities in Melbourne’s West initiative, the centre launched the Collaborative Action Plan during an online event on Tuesday, November 15.
Supported by the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the plan identified where community health and community services groups are currently connected, what can be done to strengthen those connections and the place-based collaborations and actions required to support people at greatest risk of impacts caused by climate change.
Centre for Just Places executive director Susie Moloney said the plan was the result of a number of engagements with groups across the community health and community service sectors.
“Our central message is the climate justice issues puts at the forefront those who are going to be most impacted by climate change,” she said.
The findings of the report indicated newly urbanised areas in Wyndham, Melton and Brimbank are at high risk from heat waves, due to a lack of vegetation cover and socioeconomic factors which undermine people’s capacities to thrive and stay safe.
Specific health risks for the municipality also included an average summer urban heat island reading of eight to 11 degrees hotter than non-urban areas.
Jesuit Social Services’ 2021 Dropping off the Edge report also highlighted that the western suburbs experience challenges in terms of overcrowding and housing stress.
Wyndham and Melton were two of the fastest growing municipalities, and about 38 per cent of all Melbourne’s new dwellings were built in growth corridors across both areas.
Ms Moloney said there needed to be more work undertaken to allow for service infrastructure to adapt to climate change.
“The state government is doing some work related to adaptation,” she said.
Ms Moloney said the plan would be used to advocate for further funding and support in leveraging for more collaborative action around climate justice issues from all levels of government, as the total spend on climate change was decreased by 40 percent in the 2022-23 state budget.
“There’s a lot more funding and support from the state government needed,” she said.
“A lot of the work that we’ve been doing is a lot of capacity building and literacy building.”
