Sweltering Cities x The Australia Institute

$40,000 | November 2021

What do Sweltering Cities and The Australia Institute do?

Sweltering Cities engages and empowers people living in Australia’s hottest suburbs to campaign and lobby decision-makers to build the resilient and sustainable cities of the future and recognise climate change as a public health emergency. Their vision is cooler, equitable and sustainable cities, with planning and policies that put people first.

The Australia Institute is an independent think tank. They design research to influence and persuade policymakers and to shift public debates. They are fiercely non-partisan but don’t shy away from engaging in politics. They believe in democracy and our work is aimed at a better, more informed democratic debate.

Why is this work important?

This project targets a key electorate, before a federal election, to spur local climate commitments. The marginal federal electorate of Lindsay, which makes up the Penrith area in Western Sydney, has faced extreme temperatures of 48.9°, bushfires and floods. The seat flipped to Liberal in 2019 with a margin of 5% and has changed parties in four of the last five elections.

The looming federal election will be held in early 2021 when summer heat will still be top of mind in our hottest suburbs. The local lived experiences of climate impacts and political importance in the upcoming election make this area a powerful opportunity for community, media and candidate engagement on climate change. Further, this prominence is expected to grow, with the NSW Premier and Opposition Leader naming Western Sydney as the key political battleground for 2023.

We know extreme heat is an important issue for Lindsay residents. In the Sweltering Cities summer survey, 71% of people in the Penrith area said that they believe climate change will mean hotter summers and 88% of people said that politicians and political parties should have policies on extreme heat.

Meanwhile, the 2018 Western Sydney Heatwatch report states that under current emission reduction policies, Penrith could reach an average of 59 days over 35° and 14 days over 40°. Updated data from the last three years will give an even clearer picture of the future of Western Sydney with or without ambitious emissions reductions policies.

Australia is crippled by the misconception that it’s against people’s economic interests to take ambitious steps to reduce our carbon emissions. By presenting the persuasive health, science and economic data, combined with powerful local stories, we can use the confluence of summer and the election to shift climate politics in this key marginal seat, and the country.

How is Groundswell supporting this work?

We have the opportunity to win cross-partisan commitments for action to mitigate rising temperatures. Extreme heat is a silent climate killer that disproportionately impacts people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, low-income, young and elderly Australians. We aim to engage Western Sydney’s political leaders in policies to mitigate climate impacts, by producing data-driven reports and giving a platform to local advocates affected by heatwaves.

Community Advocate Training (Sweltering Cities lead)

• Identify and equip 20 community advocates with the training to share their personal stories of extreme heat and climate change in writing, photography and media interviews

• Document stories of local climate impacts in visual and written forms. These will be incorporated into the HeatWatch report

• Develop a database of advocates for media and community events

Lindsay HeatWatch Report (The Australia Institute lead)

• Publish a research report on the heat projections in the Lindsay electorate. The report will be 10-20 pages, centred on new analysis from CSIRO and BOM heat projections, complemented by stories from community advocates. It will highlight intensifying climate impacts and propose policy solutions.

• Conduct polling on voters’ concerns for rising temperatures. The polling, and a brief outlining the results, will be completed within three months of the election to target political interest.

• Launch research with cross-sectoral experts including those who work in health, sports and workers rights.

Candidate Briefings and Public Forum (shared responsibilities)

• Deliver private briefings to Western Sydney MPs, their staffers, and candidates to highlight the research findings and discuss policy solutions. Local representatives can deliver both climate mitigation (emissions reduction) and adaptation (Eg. planning that reduces urban heat island effects).

• Host a pre-election candidates forum in Penrith within 6 weeks of election with +100 attendees (live/virtual) and local organisation support. This will give voters the chance to engage directly with their political candidates.

Grant update

What activities were carried out:

• Produced the report Heatwatch: Extreme heat in Western Sydney – Detailing how extreme heat is already disproportionately impacting Western Sydney and the projected days over 35°C under different climate scenarios.

• Created an interactive webpage, to put climate and extreme heat data into context. Users can view the projected number of extreme heat days within their electorate under different scenarios.

• Held a Candidates Forum in the Lindsay electorate (Penrith) on the topic of extreme heat in Western Sydney. Candidates included Labor candidate for Lindsay Trevor Ross, Greens candidate Pieter-Joris Morssink, United Australia Party candidate Joseph O’Connor, and Informed Medical Options party candidate Rebekah Ray.

• Conducted Polling in the Western Sydney area on attitudes towards and experiences of extreme heat.

• Held briefings of the report findings with Western Sydney based federal MPs. Electorate specific briefings were held for four Federal MPs in Western Sydney electorate – Michael Freelander (MacArthur), Anne Stanley (Werriwa), Julie Owens (Parramatta), and Kristina Keneally (Fowler)

• All Federal MPs with electorates in Western Sydney were provided with an electorate-specific HeatWatch factsheet detailing projected extreme heat in their electorates.

What difference did this make?

• Increased public awareness of extreme heat risks posed by climate change in the Western Sydney area, through media reporting of report findings. The SMH reporting, Sweltering mother from Sydney’s west puts son, 3, to sleep in car for the aircon, included a strong human impact focus, including interviews with Western Sydney residents impacted by extreme heat. The News.com story, Western Sydney could swelter through five-fold increase in extreme heat days: report, led with the potential increase in extreme heat days threatening Western Sydney if no action is taken to curb climate change, and the Conversation article by report author Hannah Melville-Rea, Western Sydney will swelter through 46 days per year over 35°C by 2090, unless emissions drop significantly, provided a synthesis of the report findings.

• The project help connect extreme heat and climate voices within the Western Sydney community – Members of Sweltering Cities, Doctors for the Environment, school strike for climate, and local Wester Sydney residents were able to connect with others to campaign for stronger action on climate and extreme heat.

• Stimulated a public conversation with about extreme heat, heatwaves, and how people are coping with the health impacts in Western Sydney.

• Provided a forum for Western Sydney residents to question how their representatives would respond to an urgent local political issue ahead of the federal election.

• Provided interactive data set for users to explore the impacts of climate change on extreme heat days in their local electorate.

What did you learn?

• The partnership between the Australia Institute and Sweltering Cities was effective, with a valuable balance of research and campaign skills/experience.

• The 2021/22 summer was cooler than usual due to a number of climate drivers including a La Nina phase, which made the Heatwatch messaging less tangible. Messages about extreme heat and climate change tend to be more effective during hotter conditions. To contextualize the findings, extreme heat was posited as one of many impacts of a changing climate, with others including increasingly frequent and severe flood events.

• The data element of this project was extremely valuable and has longevity. The data set allowed for tailored political briefings, with specific heat scenarios for individual electorates, which increased MP interest. It will be used for future Heatwatch work.

• Confirming the attendance of politicians for the Candidates Forum was a long process, made more arduous by the fact that the Institute is not Sydney based. In future, building relationships with relevant politicians will be prioritized earlier in the project and the local partner organisation should lead the political outreach.

To learn more about Sweltering Cities x The Australia Institute’s project impact, read our interview with Sweltering Cities CEO Emma Bacon.