Susie Moloney

Dr Susie Moloney is an Associate Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning in the School of Global Urban and Social Studies and a member of the Centre for Urban Research (CUR), RMIT University. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation, social equity and justice, urban sustainability and land-use planning and the implications for policy and governance particularly at the local and regional scale. She has worked for both the public and private sectors in the urban planning and sustainability policy domains. Between 2021-2023 she was seconded to establish the Centre for Just Places at Jesuit Social Services. As the Executive Director she led a research, policy and practice team working at the intersection of social justice, equity and well-being and climate change. She is currently a Strategic Advisor supporting this ongoing work.

Over the last fifteen years she has worked on a range of applied climate change research projects with local and state government and community sector organisations. She was a lead researcher working with the Victorian government to co-designing their Place-based Adaptation Guidance Briefs and the Guidance Brief for Local Governments legislative roles and responsibilities under climate change. She is one of the co-founders of The Climate Change Exchange a not-for-profit initiative, committed to the goals of justice, equity and ecological sustainability in working towards a climate resilience future.

Susie partnered for a number of years with the Western Alliance for Greenhouse Action (WAGA) on the 'How Well Are We Adapting? project which involved co-designing a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Climate Change Adaptation for local governments (see http://adapt.waga.com.au/). Susie was a co-investigator on a 4 year international comparative network supported by the European Science Research Council (ESRC) titled 'Low Carbon Urban Transitions: a Comparative International Network' (http://community.dur.ac.uk/incut/). The network included researchers from the UK, China, India, South Africa and the US. Susie co-edited the 2018 book 'Local Action on Climate Change: Pathways and Opportunities and Constraints', Routledge , UK , along with Professor Hartmut Funfgeld (Freiburg University) and Prof Mikael Granberg (Karlstad University). She has also co-authored a book about urban planning and sustainability in Melbourne with Professor's Robin Goodman and Michael Buxton 'Planning Melbourne: Lessons for a Sustainable City' published by CSIRO in 2016.

Industry experience
Research/Consulting areas:
Urban planning and sustainability
Climate change adaptation planning and policy
Social and ecological justice projects
Low carbon transitions