2019-06-11 P&E Agenda - Item 7 - Attachment 1 - Environment Strategy

Climate change adaptation and resilience
Goal                                                                     Projections for Noosa show that based on current
                                                                         emissions trajectories, Noosa is likely to experience an
By 2030 the resilience of the Noosa community and                        increase in the average duration of the longest heatwave
environment continues to increase.                                       in a given year extending from fewer than five days to
                                                                         almost two months. The number of days per year over 35
Climate change is already presenting new challenges in                   degrees could increase from fewer than three to over 35,
the way society plans and prepares for disasters, designs                by the end of the twenty first century.
developments and infrastructure, and manages our
natural environments. Worrying changes in sea surface                    Based on these projections, we can expect increased
and air temperatures, ocean pH, and regional sea levels                  risks to people, property and natural environments from
have been occurring over the previous century, and                       sea level rise, coastal erosion, storm tide inundation,
continue to do so at an accelerating rate.                               flooding, bushfires, extreme weather, higher temperatures
                                                                         and changes in seasonal rainfall.
The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) report recognised that to limit global warming to                 Changes to our climate will affect the way we live, how
1.5°C requires urgent action by 2030, and that global net                we recreate, our health and wellbeing, and the health and
anthropogenic CO2 emissions must decline by about 45%                    survival of natural ecosystems and species. In response,
from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach zero by 2050.                         this theme is progressed under the following three
                                                                         strategies:
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO, 2018) expects significant changes                    •     reduce emissions and resource consumption
are very likely to occur to Australia’s climate without a                 •     increase community resilience and capacity to adapt
significant reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions                        to climate change
and transformation of land use practices. In the absence
of these changes, the human and ecological systems                        •     manage and restore the natural environment in a
that we currently benefit from – including in Noosa – are                       way that improves resilience to climate change.
expected to be negatively impacted.




                          The Long Paddock - Future Climate Dashboard, Queensland Government, accessed 22 October 2018




                                                                                                                                      35