2021-08-10 P&E Agenda - Item 7 - Attachment 1 - Climate Change Response Plan

            Noosa Shire Council




         Our current climate
         The South East Queensland region has a sub-tropical climate. The average annual temperature
         is 19°C. Summer average temperature is around 24°C, in autumn and spring it is 20°C, and in
         winter 14°C.
         Annual and seasonal average rainfall are variable, affected by local factors such as
         topography and vegetation, and broader scale weather patterns, such as the El Niño–La Nina.
         Most rainfall occurs in summer and autumn.


         Our changing climate
         The climate is changing across Queensland. Average temperatures across the state are
         around 1°C higher than they were 100 years ago. Recent decades have shown a clear
         warming trend driven by increasing atmospheric carbon emissions stemming from human
         activities. The climate has always been variable, but human-caused climate change is leading
         to shifts beyond this natural variability, at a rate that could be as much as 50 times greater than
         otherwise would have occurred.
         Noosa has a long history of climate-driven extremes such as floods, droughts, heatwaves and
         bushfires.
         Climate change is likely to exacerbate the frequency and/or severity of these events. It can be
         an amplifier of these and other hazards, and even lead to the emergence of new risks.
         Below is a summary of the expected changes in key climate variables for Noosa, as well as
         some of the risks that we will likely need to adapt to. The figures presented have been obtained
         from the Queensland Government’s Climate Dashboard (2021), and are based on a global
         emissions scenario whereby low-moderate efforts to reduce carbon emissions are made by the
         year 20901.
         The risks posed by a rapidly changing climate can be chronic (e.g. changes in average
         temperature or annual rainfall totals) or acute (e.g. rapid onset but relatively short-lived disaster
         events such as floods and storms).




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      This scenario is called ‘Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5’




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