An appraisal of Australia's approach to promoting urban sustainability

Purpose Much rhetoric exists on the urgency of transitioning from current practices to a more sustainable society. However, because this imperative is guided by strong ideological overtones, weaknesses and failures in the transition effort attract inadequate scrutiny. This paper reviews Australia's progress with sustainability in an urban domain and identifies key issues hindering the sustainability transition effort. Design/methodology/approach Research on urban sustainability is ubiquitous but this weight of publications tends to emphasize technical, operational or prescriptive themes. This research uses an interpretivist philosophical lens and inductive reasoning to manually analyse pertinent literature sourced from the Scopus and Web of Science data-bases. Specifically, this study assembles outcome and evaluative assessments pertaining to Australia's urban sustainability efforts to identify both the progress achieved and residual structural impediments. Findings Emergent findings illustrate that Australia's urban sustainability goals, as expressed by the Paris Accord, have not been met. Obstruction can be attributed to over-ambitious objectives combined with weak federal leadership, under-resourced local government, over-reliance on superficial rating systems and an ineffective regulatory regime. Elite green branding by image conscious corporations are insufficient to offset the general disinterest of the unincentivized majority of building owners and developers. Originality/value This paper cogently summarizes Australia's urban sustainability status, along with complexity of the challenges it faces to meet targets set.

Automated summary

This paper reviews Australia's progress in urban sustainability and identifies key issues hindering the sustainability transition effort, such as over-ambitious goals, weak federal leadership, under-resourced local government, and ineffective regulatory regime. The study used interpretivist philosophical lens and inductive reasoning to analyze pertinent literature to conclude that Australia has not met its urban sustainability goals as expressed by the Paris Accord.