As a comprehensive new Australian Government report shows that climate hazards like droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves will worsen “under all plausible futures”, University of the Sunshine Coast experts are on hand to discuss.
The National Climate Risk Assessment examines how climate change could affect systems such as health, infrastructure, the economy and the environment.
It warns of the significance of global warming between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius and urges early action to reduce long-term costs and protect values.
UniSC Senior Lecturer in Urban Design and Town Planning, Dr Silvia Tavares
“Australia's first National Climate Risk Assessment reveals escalating risks from droughts, floods, heatwaves, and fires, emphasising that early action reduces long-term costs while protecting all communities.
The report warns that heatwaves will increase heat-related deaths, particularly in northern Australia.
Urban design and planning are crucial for implementing effective cooling strategies that create healthy and safe neighbourhoods.
This involves using built form and vegetation to provide shade without blocking cooling breezes, selecting building materials that maintain cool environments, and reducing carbon emissions.
Climate-sensitive design must be integrated across all planning levels—regulation, strategy, and implementation—to achieve climate-resilient infrastructure and heat-safe urban environments.
This approach delivers multiple benefits: protecting ecosystems, improving human thermal comfort, reducing heat stress, and enhancing building energy performance.
Well-planned built environments are essential for mitigating climate change impacts on health while supporting community wellbeing, safety, and liveability.
The data helps governments, businesses, and communities prepare for the future, but achieving these outcomes requires comprehensive land use and regulatory planning reforms to ensure healthy, sustainable, and resilient communities across Australia.”
UniSC Lecturer in Environmental Science and Engineering, Dr Luke Verstraten
“The recent Australian Climate Service report highlights what we are already experiencing around Australia with increased climate related risks under the current 1.2°C of global warming and what evidence has shown us.
Australians are already feeling this with the rising cost of living as prices have gone up for key items such as insurance, food and energy with a part of the increased costs directly related to increased extreme weather events linked to climate change.
Without changing the current course we are on globally, these costs and impacts on lives and livelihoods will increase dramatically.
Efforts to reduce our future risk through reducing emissions and improved efforts to adapt will ultimately payoff for all of us, even though it may seem like an extra cost now. The sooner we act, the bigger the payoff.
We all have a part to play in reducing climate risks in the same way the risks of driving are both a product of the roads the government builds, the companies that make our cars and the motorists that use them.
It’s time we all start to take climate risks as seriously and be a part of making Australia a safer place to live both now and in the future.”
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