Climate Adaptation Down Under: Science for Decision-Making

Australia has recently undergone a science and policy renaissance with respect to climate change adaptation. This has included new research funding, new institutional arrangements, and a heightened demand among vulnerable stakeholders for climate information and guidance on appropriate responses. The CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship (CAF) research initiative is characteristic of this rapid expansion of adaptation efforts. CAF?s inter-disciplinary research themes span climate change projections, development of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS), vulnerability assessment and the facilitation of adaptation in cities, coasts, natural resources management and primary industries. In this presentation, Tyndall Visiting Fellow Benjamin L Preston will discuss CAF's research agenda and recent outputs relating to vulnerability assessment and adaptation. This targets two different scales of organisation: top-down assessments to understand the implications of climate change, generate novel assessment methods, elucidate adaptation processes, and identify priority regions and sectors for adaptation research; and bottom-up assessments in which researchers work closely with local governments and communities to raise awareness, develop adaptation strategies and identify critical limits and barriers. Research outputs have highlighted past water resource management decisions and demographic trends as core determinants of Australian climate vulnerability; as well as a great diversity of perspectives on adaptation. These are interesting times for adaptation researchers in the 'Lucky Country'.