'Early days' for ACT climate adaptation as Australia fails to keep pace

Once a world leader in climate adaptation responses, Australia has dropped the ball when it comes to transformative adaptation, Professor Mark Howden, climate institute director at the Australian National University said.

The latest IPCC report found effective options to adapt to climate change would reduce losses and damages for nature and people, amid predictions global temperatures will have risen 1.5 degrees on pre-industrial levels by 2035.

The report pointed to on-farm water management and storage, soil moisture conservation, irrigation and sustainable land management approaches among its effective adaptation responses.

Ecosystem-based adaptation approaches include urban greening, as well as restoration of wetlands and upstream forest ecosystems to reduce flood risks and urban heat.

"There's an obvious requirement for us to change the way we do things, to adjust," Professor Howden said.

"In a rational world, we'd actually be trying to keep the pace of that adaptation aligned with the rates of change that we're observing and that we're projecting in the future."

The Synthesis Report, an assessment of thousands of scientific papers produced to provide guidance to policymakers, found Australia has primarily been focused on disaster response and recovery.

Its authors identified an opportunity for Australia to undertake a national risk assessment and to develop a national climate adaptation implementation plan that is aligned with Paris Agreement expectations.

Professor Howden said the ACT had focused primarily on the emissions reduction task until recently, and transitioning to a renewable electricity supply.

Adaptation and mitigation opportunities in cities include considering climate change impacts and risks in design and planning, co-location of jobs and housing, supporting public transport and active mobility, as well as the efficient design, construction, retrofit, and use of buildings.

A chair on the ACT Climate Council, Professor Howden said it was only now attention was beginning to turn to the adaptation task and non-electricity sector emissions reduction, including heating and cooling in housing and transport in Canberra.

"I think the ACT government has progressed where its attention has been paid from renewable electricity into other sectors and I think that's a good thing," Professor Howden said.

"It's still early days in terms of the ACT and climate change adaptation, so I think we've got a lot of room to move on that."

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The IPCC report shows to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, carbon-dioxide emissions need to be reduced by about two thirds on 2019 levels by 2035.

Professor Howden said federally in Australia the focus was also on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly regards to energy systems and capping emissions for the big companies.

"The emission reduction challenge is very, very near term, and it's very large, and so it's right that the government focuses on that.

"However, the flip side of the coin is the adaptation side of things, doesn't really seem to be getting attention these days."

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