Reducing Australia's Greenhouse Emissions through Urban Passenger Transport Reform

Michael Robertson

UEA Submission to the Garnaut Climate Change Review on the topic of Transport, planning and the built environment

The world needs to reduce greenhouse emissions. What should Australia do? First try no regrets emissions reduction. For example reducing urban passenger transport emissions, which will result in direct cost savings and savings in kind. How? By making alternative non-car modes - walking, cycling and public transport - more attractive. How? Among other things by changing urban design, limiting traffic volumes on main roads, and preventing road congestion through road-use charges.

Proposal for Compact Urban Growth in Adelaide

Michael Robertson & Andrew Tidswell

UEA submission to Planning SA concerning proposed changes to Adelaide's urban growth boundary.

Future urban growth in Adelaide should occur within established urban areas, close to activity centres and along public transport corridors, preferably within 10 km of the metropolitan centre. It should not occur on the periphery of the metropolitan area, some 40 or 50 km from its centre.

Carbon Offset Schemes - Can you trust them?

Michael Robertson

Households or organisations that have occasion to engage in activities that result in significant greenhouse gas emissions may wish to offset these emissions and so become “carbon neutral”. There are various schemes that will offset your emissions for a price. But how can you be sure you get what you pay for?

Ecological Footprint (PDF)

Sharon Ede

What is an ecological footprint? How is it calculated? What is overshoot? How many planets would be needed if everyone had the ecological footprint of the average Australian?

Sick Cities Make a Sick Planet

Chérie Hoyle

We’ve heard a lot about ‘sick buildings’, but with global warming we need to talk about ‘sick cities’. So what sort of questions do you ask to find out if your city is ‘sick’?

Proposal for a Global Emission Permit Scheme

Michael Robertson

UEA submission to the Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading.

We need a globally coordinated, adequate response to global warming, that puts a price on greenhouse emissions, uses the money raised to fund technology development and other projects that will accelerate the transition from a carbon-intensive to a low-carbon economy, and to fund projects that will help human communities and natural ecosystems adapt to climate change.

Responding to Global Warming

Michael Robertson

Rapid global warming is disrupting human settlements and natural ecosystems. By slowing global warming, and other measures, we can help humans and nature adapt. We need the political capacity to, as a community, face the challenge of global warming, negotiate solutions, and reassign shared resources. And the creative capacity to develop and apply technology.

A Better Way to Sell Australian Coal

Michael Robertson

Currently, when you buy Australian coal, that’s all you get - coal. But that doesn’t give us much of an advantage over our competitors. We should throw in something extra, like help to “ kick the coal habit”.

Innovation Culture - An Answer for Resource Constraints

Michael Robertson

In order to meet stringent restrictions on material resource consumption and still have economic growth we need to develop new solutions and apply existing solutions more rigorously. To this end we should develop a society-wide culture of innovation.

Time for a New Story

Adam Johnstone (Village Well)

How can we move beyond the rhetoric, dropping our personal agendas, and activate new measurements of sustainable progress? How do we enrich the lives of our local communities, local businesses, youth and elders? How can we access the knowledge, leadership, wisdom and creativity in our communities?

Revitalising Adelaide

Michael Robertson

Adelaide's urban environment can be improved by reducing motor vehicle traffic, greening local streets and making them safer for children, calming main roads, and revitalising urban centres with mixed use development. (Shorter version of Revitalising Metropolitan Adelaide).

Revitalising Metropolitan Adelaide

Michael Robertson

UEA submission for the Planning Strategy for South Australia.

Urban Ecology Australia recommends that Adelaide's urban environment be improved by reducing motor vehicle traffic, greening local streets and making them safer for children, calming main roads, and revitalising urban centres with mixed use development.

Energy Efficiency - Cushioning against Future Energy Price Rises

Michael Robertson

Australia needs more investment in energy conserving infrastructure so that households and businesses are not caught by rising energy prices over the next ten or twenty years.

Canberra Cohousing

Craig Downsborough

Canberra Cohousing Association is a group that plans to create intentional communities in urban Canberra. We are currently negotiating to obtain a suitable site in Gungahlin, Canberra, for our first cohousing development, which will contain 26 environmentally friendly townhouses.

Using Cycling to Take Cars Off the Road

Michael Robertson

Encouraging urban cycling can help reduce density of car traffic on urban roads. But we need to address the safety of urban roads, both main roads and local streets.

A Draft Proposal for a Car Share Scheme for Adelaide

Joan Carlin

Proposal: That a CarShare scheme be set up in Adelaide - in the first instance in the South West corner of the city. Similar schemes operate in many European and US cities and now in Sydney and in Melbourne.

A Long Time to Change: Why Is There Only One Christie Walk in Adelaide?

Andrew Tidswell

Many housing developments of a similar scale are being constructed, but none with anything like the environmental or community credentials of Christie Walk. With so much good publicity and commendation why haven’t more like it been developed? With so many visitors on site tours commenting favourably, why haven ’t more like it been designed or demanded?

Are Biofuels the Answer?

Joan Carlin

Shifting the public transport fleet onto biodiesel might be a good idea, but how feasible is it to shift the entire transport fleet onto biofuel?

Household Air Conditioners - How to Reduce Their Incidence and Use

Michael Robertson

Increasing use of air conditioners in Australian cities is putting strain on local electricity transmission infrastructure and is adding to greenhouse gas emission from fossil-fuel powered electricity generators.

Good Urban Design in Adelaide

Douglas Clarke

Examples of good urban design in and around Adelaide.

Inner City Residential Energy Performance

Monica Oliphant

UEA Report for SENRAC.

Data collected on energy consumption comparing homes at Christie Walk with more typical South Australian homes shows that Christie Walk homes consume less electricity and gas, and therefore causes fewer CO2 emissions, per occupant, than the average South Australian home.

A Christmas that Doesn’t Cost the Earth

Margaret Rohde

The Geopolitics of Emissions Reduction.

Michael Robertson

Alarmed by the prospect of global warming, a number of countries may sign up to a "Beyond Kyoto" Protocol with the aim of stabilising world greenhouse emissions for the next 30 years (after which they will be reduced). But what happens if the United States doesn't join up, and refuses to significantly cut back its emissions? Two measures could be used: moral pressure and trade sanctions.

Compensating Nature for Loss of Land and Water Resources

Michael Robertson

Over the last two centuries, more and more land and water has been diverted from natural ecosystems for human use. But can humans compensate for this? Without simply returning to nature all land and water currently diverted, can we make up for the loss by maximising the value to nature of the land and water that remain to its use?

Gaviotas -"Reinventing the World" in Colombia

Ron Nicholls

Designed to be self-sufficient, Gaviotas has produced many innovative, cost-effective projects and made them available as viable alternatives for social and economic development in both rural and urban areas. The community has implemented advanced examples of zero emissions principles and practice and continues to illustrate that these principles are the only way to secure the long-term success of both economic and environmental initiatives.

Lessons from Our Travels

John Boland & Chris Bryant

The whole of Cuba has embraced organic agriculture. In about 1990, some Australian permaculturists spent some time in Cuba working with people setting up permaculture systems. It was then adopted as a model for the country. In Germany the large barns that house the livestock in the winter often have 3-4 kW of photovoltaic cells on them. Why? Because Germany has signed the Kyoto agreement, and so it is worth it to the country to subsidise those generators who can provide clean energy. So the PV cells on the barns are an investment for the farmers, just as much as their dairy cows.

UEA Comments on the City of Adelaide Draft General and Park Lands Plan Amendment Report

Emily Alfred, Paul Downton, Andrew Tidswell, Chris Hales

Sustainable Cities Public Hearing - UEA Convenor's Report

Matt Fisher

Representatives of UEA were invited to participate in a public hearing with members of the House of Representatives Environment Committee as part of their Sustainable Cities Inquiry. We discussed how to get from ideas to reality, and how the government might provide leadership by funding the development of significant working examples of sustainable urban practices.

Celebrating Adelaide Using Urban Greenspace

Michael Robertson

What is distinct about Australian cities that tourists marvel at and travel half-way around the world to see? It is our unique fauna and flora, including melifluous birds and expressive, sinuous trees. We should put them up-front and centre on our main city streets.

Unpaving Streets to Create Urban Greenspace

Michael Robertson

Many streets in Adelaide are wider than needed for current traffic levels. With little inconvenience to traffic, councils could take up half the space in many streets and restore them to greenspace.

Can the Revegetation of South Australia Start in Your Garden?

Glenn Christie

Massive scale planting is required to reverse the damage caused by land-clearing. But to take the tonnes of seed required out of remnant bush would have huge environmental impacts on native fauna food chains. Household gardens planted with local native plants can be sources of local native seed, and can build a knowledge base for the creation and management of larger scale seed orchards.

Urban Forest - One Million Trees Program

Hugh Kneebone

The Urban Forest's One Million Trees initiative aims to redress the loss of local native biodiversity across metropolitan Adelaide. Over a thousand hectares of suitable open space will be planted with a mixture of local trees, bushes and ground-covers creating new urban woodlands as well as helping to buffer, link and protect existing remnant bushland.

Trees for Life - Bush for Life Program

Rita Reitano

Remnant vegetation in South Australia needs protecting. It has been heavily cleared and fragmented. The Bush For Life program is now protecting 293 sites of conservation significance with the help of 700 volunteers.

Vegetarian Diets: How Sustainable?

Barbara Sheppard

Eating meat can be sustainable, if the meat is sourced from kangaroos, whose abundant numbers roam the country without damaging the soil, or from plague locusts, harvested for food rather than killed by pesticides.

Considerations in Reducing Fossil Fuel Use

Michael Robertson

To reduce demand for fossil fuel use and optimise economic, social and environmental benefits, we should accomodate lifestyle and business aspirations.

Urban Ecology Australia's Energy Auditing Service

Margaret Rohde

As an energy auditor for UEA, the challenge has been to help people understand how their lifestyle affects their electricity bills. Getting a bill once every three months means that the actions contributing to the bill are long forgotten.

Bioregionalism: A Context for Sustainable Patterns of Living

Ron Nicholls

Identifying the region in which we live as a bioregion - a geographically defined area that embraces a local ecosystem - can create a space for a new social behavior that promotes and enriches natural systems and relationships.

Sustainable Cities 2025: A Blueprint for the Future

Matt Fisher and Michael Robertson

UEA submission to the Australian Parliament House of Representatives Inquiry into Sustainable Cities.

Sustainable cities allow people to have a good quality of life in balance with nature by integrating social, economic and environmental factors on a community scale. To begin the conversion of existing cities to a sustainable cities, UEA recommends concentrated change to selected urban sites to create working examples that will change public perceptions and aspirations, and to develop a skills and industry base for conversion on a larger scale.

Ideas for Sustainable Cities

Michael Robertson

We should turn our talents and creative energies to developing cities that provide good quality of life with minimal material consumption, that restore natural habitats and strengthen human communities. Luckily, these are goals that can be pursued simultaneously.

Cohousing - Socially and Environmentally Sustaining

Guy Dundas

Communities intended primarily as great places to grow up, grow old, or grow veges often turn out to be showpieces of environmental design. The desire for social connection creates a concern for the health of the living environment of the community.

The Somerville Ecovillage

Paul Antonelli

Ecovillages are about more than living sustainably. They create that sense of place within a community that we all crave and need. Ecovillages are our hope for the future by recreating what we once had.

Ecological Design - Some Questions and Answers

Paul Downton responds to some questions on ecological design from Michelle Breton, a Year 12 student at Salisbury East High School.

Ecopolis Development Principles

Paul Downton

Ten principles by which to repair, replenish and support the processes that maintain life and so minimise ecological footprints and maximise human potential.

UEA Submission to Draft South Australian Transport Plan

Michael Pilling

We need to focus on equity and accessibility in transport planning, and not over-rely on technical fixes.

Cities for a Greenhouse World

Paul Downton

Turning our cities into "sustainable communities" is a key response to the social and environmental challenges of adapting to a greenhouse world.

Do We Fit On The Planet?

Sharon Ede

Sustainability, food systems and the ecological footprint.

Can Adelaide Become a City for People not Cars?

Joan Carlin

Professor Jan Gehl's ideas for improving public space in Adelaide.