Localizing Climate Change: Stepping UP Local Climate Action

Abstract: Local efforts to tackle climate change are important. Greenhouse gas emissions arise from processes embedded in place, and, therefore, mitigation ef forts occur in specific locales. Additionally the local scale is where most adaptation actions are now and will, in the future, take place. These local actions have the capacity to create innovative actions, which creatively respond to local conditions, and create opportunities for community engagement. This paper argues that local climate action is important and three key aspects could provide effective avenues to step-up local climate action. These three avenues are; (1) increased attention to adaptation, (2) the linking of adaptation and mitigation efforts together and with other local ecological issues, and, (3) more effectively engaging with active community members and current non-governmental community responses to climate change. These actions could give climate change a local saliency and tangibility, spur more effective action, build community resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate impacts. This main focus is the third action of effectively engaging the community within an Australian context