VCCCAR welcomes Victoria's State Adaptation Plan

Big news for the Victorian adaptation community was the release this week of the first Climate Change Adaptation Plan by the Victorian Government.

The Plan, required under the 2010 Climate Change Act, is a welcome recognition of the challenges associated with adapting to climate change and provides a clear signal that the Victorian Government sees a responsibility to manage impacts on its assets and services and to support adaptation in industry and the community.

The Plan comprehensively documents a range of activities that have been occurring across state and local governments and indicates the roles and responsibilities across different levels of government and the community.

The Plan comprehensively documents a range of activities that have been occurring across state and local governments and indicates the roles and responsibilities across different levels of government and the community.

It spells out strategies for addressing climate change impacts Key State Government responsibilities include managing risks to public assets and services, natural assets and natural resource-based industries and building disaster resilience through integrated emergency management. The State Government also has a role in improving access to research and information for decision-making and supporting private sector adaptation. There is a need for partnerships to achieve effective adaptation and build capacity in local government and community sectors to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to respond to climate change.

The Plan identifies a strong role for research. Generating options for adapting to climate change is best done as a shared process between researchers and practitioners. Through the VCCCAR partnership, researchers in Victorian universities have been working with government to address knowledge needs and improve decision making capacity. It’s clear that we are only at the start of this process and further research is required to ensure that investment is effectively targeted in adaptation options that have the highest benefit to cost ratio.

I look forward to continuing our current productive partnerships and expanding and linking with national organisations like the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, as well as with the broader community, to undertake research that will improve adaptation decision making and progress the actions identified in the Plan.