If you live, work, study, own a business or go out in the City of Sydney local area, you’ll likely hear a lot about Sydney 2050 in the coming months. Here’s what you need to know.

A holistic plan for a city

As a local council, we’re responsible for the things that keep our city running – from parks, pools and cultural programs to roads, rates and rubbish.

More than a decade ago we created a plan with our community for the city’s future, Sustainable Sydney 2030. This helped us take action on climate change, support local businesses, plan our parks, playgrounds and cycleways, and support the city’s creative and cultural life.

Thanks to this plan, we’ve seen:

• an annual greenhouse gas emission decrease of 20% in the City of Sydney local area since 2006
• more than 13,200 trees planted since 2004
• 21 new parks created and major upgrades of 100 existing parks
• cycling trips have doubled in the city since 2010
• 500,000 more jobs in our city – 110,000 more than a decade ago.

Big things can happen when we plan for the city as a whole.

But cities change quickly, and our plan for the city need to evolve to meet our communities’ current and future needs.

Our city’s grown – and the world has changed

In the last decade, our city has seen unprecedented growth and development. Our residential population has grown by 38 per cent – adding almost 10,000 new residents each year in recent years.

We’ve seen a surge in small bars popping up in our local area. We’ve built a network of bike lanes. And we’ve seen Green Square transform from an industrial area to a thriving residential community.

But it’s not just Sydney that’s changing: urbanisation, globalisation and climate change are affecting cities around the world in urgent ways.

2050 is not so far away

2050 sounds like a long way away, but in the lifespan of a city, it’ll be here before we know it. As a council, we need to have a shared long-term vision. This allows everyone – our communities, businesses and all levels of government – to know what to expect. And it helps them plan for and contribute to our shared future.

We’re using this opportunity to explore how the future of our city could look in the years to 2050.

The 2050 timeframe aligns with the Paris Climate Agreement, which commits over 130 parties, including Australia, to pursue efforts to limit the global temperature increase to less than 1.5 degrees by 2050.

And we’ve also set our own target for our local government area to contribute net zero emissions by 2050.

How you can get involved

Over the next few months we’ll be asking for your input as we create this plan for Sydney in 2050, called the ‘community strategic plan’.

It’s an opportunity to say how you feel about aspects of our city now and what you would like Sydney to be like in the future.

This will help us shape plans for the city and take action or advocate on your behalf. There are several ways to have your say:

• fill out an online survey – open until 22 April.
• register for a community session near you in March.
• check out pop-up events – these are happening over March and April.

You can also join our community panel if you’d like to give ongoing feedback.