Australian homes under-prepared for longer, more frequent heat waves – Dr Sarah Robertson
As Australian summer heat-waves become more frequent and extreme, experts are calling for urgent improvements to housing standards.
Dr Sarah Robertson has released a new study examining how Victorian households cope with extreme heat.
They’re calling for something similar to appliance ratings, to help households improve their resilience to extreme temperatures while minimising energy costs and environmental impacts.
Dr Sarah Robertson is a research fellow at RMIT University and the Deputy Associate Director at the Regenerative Environments & Climate Action Centre for Urban Research. Dr Robertson is an expert on sustainable housing transitions and former editor of Sanctuary: Modern Green Homes Magazine.
On The Record’s Atikah Hurley spoke with Dr Sarah Robertson to chat about this further.
“Households in Victoria consider heat a temporary disruption, we wait for a cool change to come through. Victoria thinks about heat-waves as short-term and for many households it was manageable, with air conditioning or the ability to move somewhere else for coolness. Things like insulation, draft proofing, shading are really important, but beyond that its about the local environment and how the heat retains. We really need to think more holistic and think longer-term through the heat-waves.”
In an interview with The Conversation, Dr Robertson had this to say, “In a climate changed world, short-term practices of keeping cool at home without broader and more holistic governance responses risk more households stuck in unhealthy, unsustainable and maladaptive situations of heat at home.”
For more information on this, you can read Dr. Sarah Robertson’s report, Tracing the ruptures and rhythms of summer heat, energy vulnerability and home, here.
