By David Jenkins
Australia’s path to net zero will not be decided in Canberra. It will be built, bit by bit, and a lot of it by local governments managing a vast proportion of the nation’s roads, parks, buildings, fleet and waste facilities.
Local government is the most asset-intensive tier of government, responsible for over $640 billion in public infrastructure across 537 local government areas. Councils maintain over three-quarters of the road network and operate thousands of community facilities, all of which must be adapted for a changing climate.
While the debate often centres on “more funding”, the real opportunity lies in how we invest. Every renewal, every resurfacing, every refurbishment is a chance to embed climate resilience and emissions reduction into business-as-usual spending.
A sealed road can use low-carbon materials. A stormwater upgrade can double as a flood-mitigation and biodiversity corridor. A community centre refurbishment can include rooftop solar, energy-efficient HVAC, and EV charging.
In short, net zero doesn’t always need new money; it needs new thinking.
The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) has long warned that climate risk is escalating, but the real cost driver is asset vulnerability, not ambition. Many local roads, drains and public buildings were designed for a climate that no longer exists. Updating them during renewal, rather than after a disaster, is both fiscally responsible and climate smart.
The floods in northern New South Wales and bushfires across Victoria underscored the fragility of local infrastructure. The 2022 East Coast floods left councils with more than $1.5 billion in repair bills. Rebuilding to the same standard is a false economy. Instead, embedding climate resilience – higher bridges, better drainage, greener verges, and more durable materials – ensures taxpayer dollars work harder and last longer.
This reframes the conversation: it’s not chasing more grants but about integrating climate risk into existing capital works and asset management frameworks.
That shift demands capability as much as capital. Many smaller councils lack in-house engineers, asset managers or sustainability officers with the skills to assess lifecycle carbon and resilience impacts. A recent ClimateWorks report found only one in four councils had a dedicated sustainability role.
Let’s not forget there are several resources available, including IPWEA’s practice notes on climate-adjusted asset life and climate-resilient materials. In addition, the new Green Infrastructure Management Manual will be released soon along with further guidance material.
Other countries are tackling this gap head-on. In the UK, the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) has been working with local councils on how to decarbonise their local highways infrastructure and assets which make a significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, climate change impacts and future resilience. Funded by the Department for Transport, the Live Labs 2 programme is supporting the transition to net zero carbon local roads. This includes establishing a consistent carbon assessment accounting standard, setting up centres of excellence, skills development and a reset on street lighting. It’s about changing behaviours and equipping the local highways sector to change.
Germany funds “municipal climate managers” within councils to lead projects and train staff.
Australia could take a similar path, establishing shared regional climate resilience to build practical expertise in infrastructure planning, procurement, and materials innovation. These measures are less about extra cash and more about enabling councils to use existing budgets more effectively.
What’s needed is a smarter partnership among federal, state, and local governments, one that aligns climate policy, infrastructure funding, and resilience planning around three principles:
- Integrate, Don’t Add: Embed climate considerations into every infrastructure project, assessing carbon and resilience performance as standard practice.
- Build Skills and Data: Create shared technical teams and training programs so all councils can make evidence-based decisions.
- Empower Place-Based Innovation: Support local pilots, from low-carbon concrete to nature-based stormwater designs, that can be scaled nationally. Importantly, these innovations should be monitored & evaluated over time, and the learning shared confidently.
This is not to say councils don’t need funding certainty; they do. But the bigger issue is fragmentation. The current grant system rewards competition for short-term projects rather than sustainable outcomes over the long-term. Consolidating those funds into flexible, outcomes-focused frameworks would allow councils to integrate climate goals seamlessly into their investment cycles.
Climate adaptation and decarbonisation should not sit in a separate funding silo; they should be the default lens for every capital works.
Councils are already showing what’s possible. The City of Melbourne’s Power Purchasing Agreement with regional wind farms has enabled its operations to run on 100% renewable power. In Queensland, the Sunshine Coast Council’s solar farm powers its administration buildings and community facilities. In regional NSW, small councils are trialling low-carbon road materials.
These are not grand gestures; they are practical, embedded changes, and they’re exactly what the transition demands.
Australia’s net-zero transformation will succeed or fail in local hands. Councils are not asking for blank cheques; they are asking for partnership, clarity, and the ability to plan smarter.
If we equip them to renew and replace better, we can deliver climate resilience, economic value, and community trust – all at once.
Because the road to net zero won’t just be newly built infrastructure, it will be renewed, resurfaced and reimagined, one local project at a time.
