In what could be a massive win for communities and biodiversity, Queensland's State Planning Policy (SPP) will now include a requirement for minimising adverse impacts of the urban heat island effect.

Queensland's Regional Conservation Councils have lobbied the State Government to better recognise the impacts of extreme heat on humans and nature, as well as the excellent potential for healthy ecosystems to passively cool our urban environments. (Check out our coverage in the ABC here!) While we would love to see more ambition and a formal recognition of heat as a natural hazard under the SPP, this is still an important step. We thank everyone who signed our parliamentary e-petition earlier this year, and threw your support behind it!

Unfortunately, the SPP review has not all been good news. While the Draft contains some welcome provisions, it fails to provide adequate environmental safeguards or explicitly address climate change, renewable energy development and First Nations rights.

What we support in the Draft:

✅ Stronger recognition of cumulative impacts and habitat fragmentation.  

✅ Continued protection of coastal processes and natural coastal systems.  

✅ An integrated approach to water supply and catchment health. 

✅ Explicit attention to urban heat and liveability, including recognition of the wellbeing benefits of accessible green space. 

✅ A stronger focus on infrastructure resilience and recovery. 

Summary of Recommendations:

➡️ Establish stronger environmental limits. Retain and strengthen requirements to avoid significant impacts, maintain ecological connectivity and consider cumulative impacts at a landscape scale. Recognise that offsets cannot compensate for every type of environmental loss. 

➡️ Restore an explicit climate change commitment. Require climate change mitigation and adaptation to be considered across all state interests, with climate projections and nature-based resilience incorporated into planning decisions. 

➡️ Reinstate an explicit commitment to renewable energy. Enable renewable energy and associated infrastructure in appropriate locations, while requiring robust consideration of ecological, cultural and community values. 

➡️ Strengthen water, coastal and catchment protections. Retain effective existing safeguards and strengthen protection of natural systems that sustain the Great Barrier Reef, regional water quality, biodiversity and community resilience. 

➡️ Restore recognition of Country and First Nations Rights. Recognise First Nations knowledge, cultural heritage and values and rights. 

➡️ Recognise heat as a natural hazard. Ensure Queensland's deadliest natural hazard is appropriately and explicitly addressed. 

READ OUR SUBMISSION HERE

Our submission elaborates on our recommendations, and is accompanied by our responses to the Natural Hazards Planning Discussion Paper.

To learn more about the State Planning Policy and to read the associated documents, visit https://www.planning.qld.gov.au/planning-framework/plan-making/state-planning/state-planning-policy.

Thank you to the many organisations and individuals have taken the time to make thoughtful submissions, highlighting the need to explicitly address climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity protection and the rights of First Nations peoples.