[ad_1]
Climatic trends, extreme conditions and sea level rise are already hitting many of Australia’s ecosystems, industries and cities hard.
As climate change accelerates, we are seeing cascading and compounding risks and impacts, even where extreme events occur. These are putting even greater pressure on our ability and willingness to respond.
Despite the fact that we have begun to adapt, we have discovered that the progress has been slow and insufficient given the risks we face.
These findings result from our co-authorship of the new chapter on Australia and New Zealand in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment ReportToday’s publication, Impacts, Vulnerability & Adaptation
Jason O’Brien/AAP
What does the report say about Australia?
This new report was created by over 270 climate experts who reviewed and synthesized the most recent information. They analyzed more than 34,000 peer-reviewed papers about climate change and how it affects societies and ecosystems.
Climate change is causing hotter temperatures, more dangerous fireweather, more droughts, floods, and higher sea levels. It also means drier winters and springs to eastern and southern Australia, as well as other changes. These changes are putting more pressure on our natural environment and settlements, infrastructure, and economic sectors, including agriculture, finance, and tourism.
If mitigation and adaptation are insufficient, homes, infrastructure, ecosystems and livelihoods in low-lying regions along our coasts where so many Australians live will be lost to rising seas.
Climate change is a major disruption for farmers and the agrifood industry, making it more difficult to produce food sustainably and profitably. Intensified heat and drought will place yet more stress on our rural communities, particularly in Australia’s south-west, south and east.
Australians will be more likely to die from heatwaves than our wildlife, and will also experience more ill health.
Rick Rycroft
Cascading impacts are a concern
Unfortunately, that’s not all we have to contend with. Two new types of climate-related risks have been identified.
The first is the cascading, compounding, and aggregate impacts on cities and towns, roads and supply-chains. These impacts are a result of the interaction between disasters like wildfires floods, droughts heatwaves, storms, sea-level rise, and wildfires. The Black Summer bushfires had a devastating impact on people and wildlife. They also destroyed homes and caused major economic losses to tourism, agriculture, and forestry. Think about the ongoing floods that continue in New South Wales, Queensland.
The second is the slow pace at which institutions and governments are moving to address these changing risks. This makes it difficult for the system to adapt. What does this all mean in practice? That the scale and scope of what we can expect to see happen may overwhelm our capacity to respond to these impacts – unless we address these risks quickly and strategically.
Climate impacts can be powerfully and unevenly amplified due to existing stresses affecting our environment, people, and the planet. For instance, Australia’s coral reefs already face threats from pollution and invasive species. Climate change is a threat multiplier.
Climate change will be a greater threat to vulnerable Australians such as those who have poor health care and unstable jobs.
Continue reading:
IPCC report: global emissions must peak by 2025 to keep warming at 1.5°C – we need deeds not words
We evaluated how much of the projected damage could have been reduced by better adaptation such changes in policy, more effective plan and technical solutions.
Our world-famous coral Reefs and the immense biodiversity and ecosystem services that they provide are the most vulnerable in our ecosystem. Many areas are already at risk due to rapidly warming oceans and intense marine heatwaves.
Already, the Great Barrier Reef is at high risk of reaching a critical threshold where further global warming could cause irreversible damage. Between 2016 and 2020, the Great Barrier Reef was subject to three major heatwaves, which caused coral bleaching, and even death. Many of the invertebrates and fish die when the coral is gone.
Normal conditions require that corals recover from one bleaching event within a minimum of 10 years. We are not in typical conditions. Warming beyond 1.5℃ would see marine heatwaves strike more often. Bleaching will go well beyond the reef’s natural ability to regenerate.
Getty Images
What does adaptation look and feel like?
We can’t address the root causes of vulnerability in our society or reduce climate-related risks. This will only make climate change impacts worse and threaten our ability to adapt.
But we can see the long-term benefits if we accelerate adaptation. This includes practicalities like making sure all strategic planning, land use planning and infrastructure developments take complex climate change risks into account – in a systematic, rather than siloed, narrowly focused, way.
Continue reading:
IPCC Report: This decade is crucial to adapt to the inevitable climate change effects and rising costs
On the positive side, Australia’s adaptation efforts have increased in ambition, scope and implementation across governments, non-government organisations, businesses and communities since the last IPCC assessment in 2014.
Australia has established a government agency in recent years. Resilience and recovery, disaster risk reduction framework, and national adaptation guidance.
Some evidence is showing that some states and territories have adopted climate adaptation strategies. Local governments, communities, regions, and associated alliances are taking an active role in adaptation. There is a lot of work being done in the private sector to address climate risk.
Aussie Ark
We found that, despite the progress being admirable, there is still a lot to be done in adapting. That’s due to implementation barriers as well as limits to adaptive capacity. We found barriers such as competing objectives, divergent risk perceptions or values, knowledge constraints, inconsistent data, fear of litigation and up-front costs.
To improve our ability to adapt, we must shift from reactive planning to anticipatory, in order to better plan for and reduce climate-related risk. Systemic risks require systemic adaptation.
We found that there was a lot to be gained by better integration and coordination between levels and sectors of government through more effective policy alignment, and more inclusive and collaborative institutional arrangements.
Australia would benefit from a national climate adaptation plan and a risk assessment. Other ways to support more effective adaptation are serious and stable financing and finance mechanisms, as well national consistency and access information and tools for decision-support.
Continue reading:
There are many ways humans can cause damage to the climate. This is how dire it is likely to get
It is also important to adapt how we do things. Climate planning that promotes inclusive governance and collective action can make the process of adaptation easier, fairer, and more efficient.
It is important to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and their institutions, knowledge and values. Climate change adaptation in society is possible due to the knowledge, skills and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.
It is the best time for you to act now
We must immediately implement effective adaptation methods and significant global emissions reductions. The damage will be much more costly and will require greater change. We need to adapt quickly and make deep cuts in our emissions.
That’s to have our best chance of keeping global warming to 1.5-2℃ and reduce the challenges of adaptation.
Despite the increasing severity of climate impacts and threats, it is possible to avoid the worst.
It is still possible to move to a pathway of “climate resilient development” in which we work together to rapidly contain global warming, adapt effectively and help secure a better future for all.
