The Australian Greenhouse Office is aiming to raise the profile of climate change risk to businesses through a series of events throughout Australia.
Climate change has been identified as a potentially significant risk for many sectors in Australia - buildings and infrastructure, water supply and agriculture are examples, and coastal regions may be particularly vulnerable. To help business and government plan for the impacts of climate change, the Australian Greenhouse Office is holding free two-hour climate change and risk management guidance workshops in every Australian capital city between May and June 2006.
“Governments, industry and communities need to think more strategically about how to respond to the changes in climate that are likely over the next 20-30 years,” the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell said.
“Many businesses will find treating climate change impacts as an exercise in risk management, a helpful way to do this.”
The workshops will be based around a new AGO publication, Climate Change Impacts and Risk Management: A Guide for Business and Government. This guide shows how routine application of the Australian and New Zealand Standard for Risk Management, AS/NZS 4360:2004 can be extended to include the risks generated by climate change. Workshop participants will receive free copies of Climate Change Impacts and Risk Management: A Guide for Business and Government and other invaluable resources.
There is compelling evidence that the climate is changing and the scientific consensus is that this change will continue, with average temperatures rising by up to 2 degrees over most of Australia by 2030, sea levels continuing to rise, reduced stream flows, bushfire weather increasing, and tropical cyclones becoming more intense.
Senator Campbell said that potential climate change impacts are not limited to physical effects such as increased storm damage, more heat waves and more frequent drought, there are also possible financial implications.
“The guide has been developed to assist executive directors, senior managers and specialist risk managers within the public and private sectors.
“Good governance in both the private and public sectors means that executives should inform themselves of the risks that might flow from climate change impacts, and take appropriate steps to deal with them,” Senator Campbell said.
Climate Change Impacts and Risk Management: A Guide for Business and Government will be launched in conjunction with climate change and risk management guidance workshops. The workshops will cover topics such as; how climate change will affect Australia, the purpose of the guide and how the application of risk management standards can help prepare organisations for climate change.
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