Archive for the ‘Adaptation’ Category
Over the past couple of weeks Eastern Australia has been racked by record flooding events and it has been hard not to get swept up in the emotion and momentum. With continuous media coverage we’ve seen more rivers peak, more levees break, more towns inundated and swarms of people aiding the recovery effort.
Looking beyond the human element and the tragedy of lives and livelihoods lost, we have seen multiple severe rainfall events wreak havoc on our infrastructure and economies. With the recovery expected to cost over $30 billion dollars and take years to complete, I hope we can learn from this and mitigate any future such events, not only in Eastern Australia, but also here in WA and Perth, despite the fact that floods are rarely seen here.
Depending on which newspapers you read or the blogs you follow, there are articles attributing the events in Eastern Australia to climate change, the La Niña weather patterns or even just the 1 in 100 year event that was bound to happen sooner or later. In general, there appears to be a consensus that there is a combination of these factors. In the medium term, we can expect El Niño and La Niña to signal periods of low and heavy rainfall across differing regions of Australia. In the longer term, it appears to be accepted that our climate is changing and we should expect these weather extremes more frequently.
Planning for these events should be a risk management exercise. At Greensense, it is a part of what we call Climate Change Adaptation. It is a process of considering a possible risk, the impacts and consequences of that risk occuring and how likely it is to happen. At the end of such an exercise, a business, community or government body should understand how resilient or vulnerable they are to various risks and should plan and adapt behaviours accordingly.
The difference between a standard risk assessment and a climate change risk assessment is that standard risk assessments consider risks under the current climate status quo. On the other hand, a climate change risk assessment takes into consideration forecast changes to climate such as increasing sea levels and changes to rainfall patterns. Often the likelihood and consequence of an event occurring may be altered in differing climate scenarios, and therefore the resulting action plan to address any vulnerabilities may be different under a climate change risk assessment.
Having watched the Eastern Australian floods play out over the last few weeks and knowing the recovery effort will be extensive, I would urge all businesses, organisations and government bodies to review their risk management processes and ensure that where you are evaluating a risk, sufficient consideration has been given to our changing climate.
If you are in south-west WA, where we are more accustomed to bushfires and storm surges, don’t forget to give consideration to floods. Following the events in the East, a quick look at Perth’s flood history shows a handful of serious flooding events on the Swan River in 1926, 1934, 1945 and 1963 with smaller, localised floods more recently. Despite the fact we’ve seen very little in the way of floods in Perth’s recent history, the risk is real and should be recognised.
The government announced its Low Carbon Communities program late last year. If you are a local council or you operate a community facility, it might be time to start thinking about potential projects that you could seek funding for under the program.
The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency is currently in the process of developing the program guidelines, including determining how the learnings from funded projects and information about the benefits of energy efficiency can be shared. They will be consulting on the draft program guidelines in early 2011. We’d expect applications for funding to open before the end of this financial year.
You should probably start by dusting off your greenhouse gas reduction plans, energy efficiency strategies, and climate change adaptation plans to look for potential projects. As a reminder there will be three funding streams:
- Small scale grants of up to $500,000 for local councils to undertake smaller scale projects to reduce energy consumption in facilities such as outdoor lighting.
- Large scale grants of up to $5 million for operators of community facilities to invest in energy efficient upgrades such as the installation of cogeneration or new heating and air conditioning.
- Greener Suburbs grants of up to $500,000 for councils to implement capacity building and demonstration projects that improve the use of parks and green spaces in urban areas.
Grants will be competitive so it is worthwhile being prepared. By considering project opportunities in the context of your broader strategies you can maximise the benefits of any funding you obtain.
There are three ways Greensense can potentially help.
Firstly, we are preferred suppliers of climate change consulting services to WA local governments and have worked with many councils developing adaptation and abatement plans. If you would like to think strategically about building a Low Carbon Community we would love to help.
Secondly, if you have some projects in mind, we can help to develop implementation plans and business cases for these projects. Once the program guidelines are available, we can help you to prepare effective grant applications.
Lastly, our technology, Greensense View supports energy efficiency and is already implemented in many councils and community buildings including leisure centres, sports stadiums, libraries and community centres. As an eligible energy efficiency technology, you could apply for funding to implement Greensense View.
Alternatively, you might want to consider installing Greensense View ahead of your Low Carbon Communities grant application, particularly if you are interested in the large scale grants. Greensense View is very cost effective to deploy and the real-time profile information it provides would be invaluable in supporting a grant application for a more substantial upgrade of a building.
In any case, its time to start put your thinking caps on to think about how this new government policy can support the changes you want to make in your community.
One of the challenges in planning for climate change adaptation is understanding what the proposed scenarios really mean for our own neighbourhoods and regions. The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has just released a series of coastal maps to help with this problem for sea level rise.
The maps (available here)
identify the potential future impacts of climate change on some coastal regions around Australia. In particular, they show the areas likely to be inundated around Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, the Hunter and Central Coast and South-East Queensland with respect to three scenarios in 2100.
These maps will be a useful tool for coastal councils and organisations when planning for climate change adaptation. They will assist organisations in understanding how sea level rise is likely to impact on their operations and infrastructure, allowing more informed decisions on how to respond to these impacts.
If you live or work in one of these regions, why not check it out. You might be surprised by what you find. If you’re interested in knowing more about climate change adaptation for your organisation, feel free to get in touch with us here at Greensense.
The Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) are running a climate change leadership forum on November 23rd, on tools, techniques and leadership lessons on climate change adaptation and mitigation. Greensense Managing Director, Derek Gerrard, will be presenting on smart technologies and behavioural change, reviewing the Subiaco Oval case study, as well as our carbon emission’s reporting solution for Local Government in partnership with WALGA.
If you haven’t registered and would like to you can find out more information here.
This weekend I facilitated the first of a two-part workshop series on climate change adaptation in Mundaring. Supported by the EMRC, the Shire of Mundaring is engaging with the community on climate change.
Climate change is a huge issue for local government. While many authorities are developing adaptation plans, this is the first community consultation in Western Australia, at least that I’m aware of.
As part of the workshop, we had Dianne Katscherian from the Department of Health give an excellent presentation on climate change and health in WA. We’ll be incorporating some of her information into our risk assessment framework, for example the need to consider chronic health issues as well death and injury in consequence scales.
During the workshop, I found the discussion and the comments from members of the community quite fascinating. At one one of the tables, we were discussing the prospects for Mundaring in the future based on the climate change scenario we were reviewing. At first the vision for Mundaring in 2070 was seemed quite negative. Just one more dormitory suburb at the end of highway leading out from Perth. A hot and dry place, prone to summer bushfires, with some of natural environment that attracted people to the area irrevocably lost to climate change.
But another participant, when reflecting on how Mundaring had changed in the last 60 years helped me see a more positive vision. He suggested in the past Mundaring had been very self-sufficient with more facilities and amenities in the area so there was less need to travel to Perth. One of the elected members at the workshop described the community in Mundaring as being resilient and used to living with threat of bushfire. I could start to imagine Mundaring in 2070 as a self-sufficient and sustainable community, living in harmony with the changed environment, actively managing the impacts of climate change on their place in Western Australia.
I’m quite excited about the second workshop in two weeks time, when we’ll start work on the action plan. climate change adaptation is one of our climate change consulting services. Please contact us if you’d like help with your climate change strategy.
While our goal is to try and mitigate the worst affects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we are already committed to a changed climate. This is why adaptation should be part of your climate change strategy.
The direct impacts of climate change include increased temperature, shifts in rainfall patterns, increased evaporation, rising sea levels, more weather extremes and bushfires.
Adaptation is about planning for these changes and understanding what they mean for our way of life. A common example is the house on the beach. With rising sea levels and more severe weather extremes, storm surges may wash away the beach and potentially the foundations, leading to damage to property or in the worse case, collapse. Adaptation is about deciding how to deal with this, and is not necessarily an easy task. In Western Australia the government has forecast that around 20,000 buildings are at risk of inundation. One response to this risk is for local governments to refuse planning approval without a minimum set back from the beach (see this previous blog).
However, we don’t all live on the beach, and when it isn’t your house, it can be easier to ignore. So what about other impacts? For example, climate change can improve conditions for invasive pest species, which can wipe out native species and may have a numerous impacts on our way of life and economy (see this YouTube video). Increased storm severity is likely to lead to more frequent damage to property (both private and public), which may lead to increased insurance expenses. Reduced rainfall, increased temperatures and increased evaporation may reduce our water supplies, which in turn will increase the cost of water and we may seesome open space areas are no longer watered, thus affecting our recreational lifestyles.
These changes to our climate have the potential to impact many aspects of our lifestyle and our businesses, and they often cause a chain reaction where one change leads to another and so on. Adaptation starts off with a risk assessment approach: identifying and prioritising the climate change risks specific to your area. Armed with this knowledge you can target your Adaptation Strategy to address key risks first and ensure sufficient resources are allocated to deal with them.
Greensense have worked with a number of clients to assist with identifying climate change risks, developing action plans, developing policies and strategies and consulting with the community. If you feel your organisation is not equipped to deal with the likely effects of climate change, we can help.
