ICLEI Oceania is delighted to welcome two new members to the ICLEI network, the City of West Torrens and Cairns Regional Council. 

West Torrens is located in western Adelaide between the business district and the sea, and the Cairns local government area is a narrow coastal strip between the Great Dividing Range and the Coral Sea in the Wet Tropics of northern Queensland. 

Now part of ICLEI’s global network of more than 1,750 local and regional governments, Cairns and West Torrens will contribute to and benefit from city-to-city knowledge exchange, technical expertise and contribute to global advocacy campaigns and processes.

The City of West Torrens is also the latest Australian council to join the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. 

"Being part of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy Program is just one of many steps that we are taking to show that we're committed to this cause. We are pleased to be one of the latest signatories and look forward to the future,” said Michael Coxon, City of West Torrens Mayor. 

In May 2020, both West Torrens and Cairns featured in a webinar on City Resilience, co-hosted by ICLEI and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Speakers shared insights on how to improve resilience strategies for better and faster recovery from disasters in the context of COVID-19.