Climate Change and the Planning System We Must Act - David Cole

Planning Beyond Tomorrow
David Cole, Convenor of Working Group on Land Use, Planning, and Climate Change - 'Is The New Planning System Climate-Ready?'
This presentation considered whether the new South Australian planning system introduced in March 2021 is equipped to adequately address the critical global issue of climate change. Modifications to the new state planning system are necessary if metropolitan Adelaide is to evolve in the next few decades in a manner which results in meaningful and continuing reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and effective adaptation.
View more from David on our playlist: 'Planning Beyond Tomorrow - full length presentations'.
In October 2021, at a time of deep disenchantment with our planning system, the National Trust of South Australia gathered experts in planning, architecture, transport, environmental science and history to tell us what they think can be done to raise our horizons and recapture the vision that once inspired us.
Could a 50-year plan preserve the best of what we have, meet the challenges of a changing climate and make future Adelaide the envy of the world?
David Cole LL.B., M.Env.St
David is a recently retired environmental lawyer. He practised in this area for some thirty years having previously worked as an environmental consultant specialising in the management of environmental impact assessments and the provision of strategic environmental advice to the public and private sectors. He was environmental consultant to the 1991 Planning Review for Metropolitan Adelaide. He has taught environmental law both full and part time at South Australian universities.
Over his working life David has been a member of South Australian statutory bodies and was an inaugural member and later chair of the Environmental Defenders Office (SA).
Currently David convenes the Working Group on Land Use Planning and Climate Change in SA. The Working Group comprises several lawyers and a senior academic planner who share a common concern about the capacity of the new State planning system to address climate change. The Working Group
is currently communicating with government agencies on the recommendations of its Final Report on Land Use Planning and Climate Change that in May of this year was submitted to the State Parliament’s Legislative Review Committee Inquiry into Planning Reform.