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BUSINESS climate adaptation

CLIMATE
ADAPTATION 

Workshop

On November 14th, over 20 horticulture stakeholders and industry representatives gathered for a Climate Adaptation Workshop hosted by DPIRD at the Pagoda Resort in Como.

Words Georgia Thomas, Fresh Creative Management

THE workshop was coordinated as part of a consultation process with industry to develop a Sector Adaptation Plan Program for Primary Production. In line with commitments made in the Government’s Climate Adaptation Strategy in 2023, with the goal of building WA’s climate resilient future.

The Strategy outlines how the climate in WA is expected to change in the coming years, with the latest assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggesting global average temperatures will reach or exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s (IPCC 2023).

In Western Australia, the south-west will continue to become drier, especially during winter and spring, with less runoff and recharge, and longer fire seasons (CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology 2022).

The northern regions of Australia are projected to experience fewer but more intense tropical cyclones. The intensity of rainfall associated with tropical cyclones is also expected to increase. Rising sea levels are likely to amplify cyclone impacts (CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology 2022) and pose significant risks to Western Australia’s coastal infrastructure and iconic sandy beaches.

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The Workshop

The workshop was held to enable a comprehensive, sector-based adaptation approach to building a shared understanding of climate impacts, risks and vulnerabilities, and to collaboratively prioritise management actions.

The industry leaders, decision-makers and experts came together to:

• Understand the climate projections for the WA horticultural region

• Identify the hazards this climate change will have on WA horticulture

• Accurately inform the government of the future climate adaptation needs of the horticulture sector

• Identify a range of measures, policies and programs to enable future adaptation of the industry by the industry to have viable businesses through climate change

• Increase the capacity for iterative adaptation planning within businesses and by the industry into the future.

The outcomes of the workshop will be used by the government to create the Sector Adaptation Plan Program for Primary Production. A final plan will be available in 2025 following further industry consultation.

My Climate View

My Climate View is an online tool available to growers to discover tailored insights into their changing climate.

In order to find out more about your location, go to the website (listed below), select your location and commodity – or None for general climate information, then select View information. This will take you to the Future Climate Overview, a dashboard that displays the historical averages for various climate factors (rainfall, temperature, etc.); future (2050s) modelled averages for the same factor; and whether the change represents an increase, decrease, or inconclusive. Inconclusive means there is no clear change between the recent and modelled future climate averages, however, some of the models used to generate the projections may indicate significant changes.

My Climate View receives funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF). It has been developed as part of the FDF’s Climate Services for Agriculture program.

“Western Australians are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. Our state is on the frontline of climate change. Over the past century, the average global temperature has risen by about 1.1°C.”

Source: Climate Adaptation Strategy


MORE INFORMATION

Contact Jackie Bucat, Project Manager Climate Adaptation, Jackie.Bucat@dpird.wa.gov.au
The Climate Adaptation Strategy and references can be found here: www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2023-07/climate_adaption_ strategy_220623.pdf

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