Urban infrastructure for long-term climate change response

Abstract

In the context of climate change response, sustainable urban infrastructure needs to deliver deep cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of the order of 80-90% by 2050. This paper examines how various GHG reduction strategies applied to urban infrastructure open up or foreclose the potential for deeper cuts in the long-term. It uses case studies of a major precinct-scale urban redevelopment site and a city-wide planning process in Sydney to illustrate how developers and planners are balancing short to medium-term GHG reduction actions with the need to achieve much deeper cuts in the long-term. There is a particular focus on the implications of strategies that prioritise gas-fired cogeneration. The paper argues that too little attention is being given to the long-term implications of short-term GHG reduction strategies and proposes infrastructure design principles for long-term GHG reduction