Climate justice in the Australian City

Australian cities face several critical problems related to climate change and social/environmental equity. The emerging Australian scholarship on ‘climate justice’ helps to explain the inequitable impacts of climate change upon marginalised and disadvantaged communities (Fritz and Wiseman 2009; Moss 2009; Steele et al 2012). Vulnerable social groups will be hardest hit by climate change whether in poorer developing nations or in the cities of western societies like Australia. But urban research on the urban equity dimensions of climate change risk and adaptation policy and governance is profoundly underdeveloped in key areas where decisions affecting issues of urban quality, equity and justice are made (e.g. public infrastructure provision, regulation of private development, environmental management, location of services etc). In this paper we address critical gaps in existing research by taking a ‘practice approach’ to how we might better support climate justice at the metropolitan scale in Australia.