Thirteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published the broad scientific basis of climate change for over 30 years, and more recently begun to publish guidance reports for cities and urban planners. In response, Victorian local governments (councils) have introduced climate change adaptation plans in alignment with the state government’s second climate change adaptation plan, updated Climate Change Act 2017, and whole-of-state-government pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The 59th Victorian Parliament recently completed Inquiry into “Tackling Climate Change by Victorian communities” (Climate Change Inquiry) presents an excellent opportunity to assess the effectiveness of current climate change adaptation plans. This research applied the General Adaptation Process principles from the United States National Research Council (NRC) report (2010), also included in IPCC reports, and Nordgren et al, 2016 to assess Victorian local government (council) climate change adaptation submissions. Key findings of the research found the majority of 25 council submissions underperformed achieving only “implementation stage” scores of 3 for most climate change adaptation measures, with only the City of Melbourne achieving transformative adaptation status, and Non-metro councils achieved slightly higher average adaptation score compared to metro councils. Preliminary Victorian local council results appear consistent with current efforts by local governments in comparable jurisdictions, such as the United States. Further research to include all 79 councils would enable a more complete capture of climate change adaptation activity and to assess state-wide effectiveness.