Responding to a Transformative Stressor: Climate Change and the Institutional Governance of Australian Cities

Climate change is likely to exert escalating stresses on urban environments over the coming decades (Garnaut, 2008; IPCC, 2007; Stern, 2006). Urban settlements in Australia will be subject to significant vulnerability (Hennessy et al, 2007). This will prompt responses from institutional governance frameworks in Australian cities and metropolitan areas. Efforts to manage climate change effects in urban environments will require institutional change, where new rules of governance are developed and imposed by institutions in an effort to more adequately manage social stresses associated with climate change and its impacts. Operationalsing climate adaptation as a central issue of planning governance will represent a significant step in addressing climate change stresses in urban environments. Operationalisation in this instance refers to climate adaptation becoming incorporated, codified and implemented as central tenet of planning governance.