A new upgrade to smart city infrastructure?
Photo: AHG

A five-year plan to ‘combat extreme heat’.

HEAT SMART CITY PLAN

A new ‘Heat Smart City Plan’ has been launched for the Greater Sydney region, it has been revealed.

The plan, developed collaboratively across multiple sectors, addresses ‘heat risks’ of the future for the region, highlights ‘the need for coordinated management against the risks’, and outlines actions for change by 2030.

It also sets key directions agreed upon with stakeholders, with the next step being the creation of an Implementation Plan to specify funding, timelines, and reporting.

Minister for Energy of New South Wales, Penny Sharpe, launched The Greater Sydney Heat Taskforce Programs’ Greater Sydney Heat Smart City Plan — promoted as a “world-leading initiative to enhance heat resilience across Greater Sydney”.

According to the plan, it marks “a ground-breaking initiative to combat extreme heat, Sydney’s deadliest natural hazard”. It is a five-year, collaborative effort, bringing in leaders from the fields of health, environment, urban planning, business, government and community.

The NSW Government’s support for the ‘Building Adaptive Capacity to Heat in Western Sydney’ initiative underscores its “commitment to tackling urban heat challenges”, said Sharpe.

The initiative, integrating strategies such as ‘enhancing green spaces’ and ‘heat-resilient infrastructure’, builds on ‘previous efforts to protect vulnerable communities in Western Sydney’.

People who die from heat-related deaths, dubbed society’s “silent killer”, is projected to surge over coming decades, with millions living in so-called ‘heat islands’ like Western Sydney.

So much so, that playgrounds will soon apparently become “untouchable” across the region, according to the (clearly well respected) Climate Council.

To combat this, the comprehensive ‘heat smart city’ approach “reflects the government’s dedication to creating a cooler, safer, and more resilient future for all of Sydney”.

Over 40 organisations and 373 individuals contributed to its development, and the plan outlines six key directions and 40 recommendations for ‘building a heat-resilient city’. Key directions outlined in the plan are:

Heat Smart Decisions: Improved collaboration, as well as measurement and monitoring of heat risk to improve decision-making for Greater Sydney.
Heat Smart Places for People: Homes and buildings are heat-responsive and can keep people safe from heat, while heat mitigation and adaptation are required in state and local planning controls.
Heat Smart Economies: The private sector plans for heat, supports risk reduction, minimises the economic impacts of heat, and seeks commercial opportunities in adaptation.
Heat Smart Infrastructure: Interconnected, resilient infrastructure enables communities to survive and thrive.
Heatwave Ready: Clear governance arrangements, funding and guidance support effective heatwave management, and empower communities to build resilience, reduce risks and manage emergencies.
Heat Smart Research: Researchers and practitioners work collaboratively to deliver heat-resilient solutions.

Lots of suspicious words there including ‘interconnected’, ‘heat-responsive’, ‘resilient infrastructure’..

What going really be going on underneath the surface here?

“This plan has been a true collaboration. Participants were able to put forward their priorities and work with others to understand how these might be actioned. This collaboration is to be commended,” commented Sharpe.

As 2030 draws closer, the ‘sustainable’ push will become even more real as the years go on, with an army of ‘climate warriors’ moving to completely transform the societies in which we live.

Sydney, as well as other locations like Melbourne, are deep in the thick of it.

THE DEEPER AGENDA

This green-minded obsession to ‘cool the planet’ continues to move ahead right here in Australia.

Let’s not forget that in 2022, the City of Melbourne became one of six locations in the world to appoint “chief heat officers”. in what was described as “a vital acknowledgement of how serious urban heat is for Australia”,

Melbourne appoints Rockefeller-backed ‘chief heat officers’

In partnership with the US-based Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, a handful of cities around the world now have these ‘chief heat officers’, ‘dedicated to reducing heat risks’.

“Melbourne is already experiencing the consequences of climate change, with extreme heat a life-threatening reality—it’s why we need to do more,” said Lord Mayor Sally Capp at the time.

“We are proud to become Australia’s champion for taking leadership action on addressing extreme heat, by forging new partnerships with world leaders like the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Resilience Center.”

Indeed, the news today is just another step forward in the radical green agenda that looks to ‘prevent’ or ‘mitigate global warming’, the fraudulent scare campaign that has been repeatedly discredited.

Top reasons to question ‘climate change’ | Opinion

Even our diets have been criticised by the cultists, with the ‘impacts of foods on climate change’ now being incorporated into Australia’s Dietary Guidelines.

All while farmers accuse the government of driving ideological agendas.

National dietary advice to now include ‘climate impacts’ of eating meat

Australians told to stop eating meat to ‘hit climate change targets’

It seems like the features described in the opening paragraph — those that make up the underpinnings of this plan — are a new overlay of the existing ‘smart city’ infrastructure that has been developing since 2019.

Australia is building ‘smart city’ infrastructure

From Brisbane to Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle, Perth and Canberra, even in Darwin, massive infrastructure projects grants were introduced for businesses to ‘help innovate and adopt’.

Lord Mayor dismisses smart city “conspiracy theorists”

Sydney has already spent the last few years upgrading existing infrastructure with smart city technology as part of the ‘Smart City Strategic Framework‘.

In fact, a brand new smart city is almost set to be unveiled.

Earlier this year, the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure released the draft Bradfield City Centre masterplan, an advanced city hub set to be nestled at the heart of the Western Sydney airport region.