Future focused: AFAC Climate Change Group
AIDR and AFAC continue to progress a productive partnership in leading the AFAC Climate Change Group. Members of the group include key individuals from jurisdictional Emergency Management agencies and the Bureau of Meteorology. They are tasked with producing a body of work to strategically support effective climate change risk mitigation, planning and adaptation outcomes for AFAC members, their stakeholders and the community.
The Climate Change Group has recently produced two key documents that contribute to this agenda, including a position paper on climate change: Fire and emergency services and climate change; and a communications resource: AFAC Climate Change Talking Points. Both documents were endorsed by the AFAC Council in October 2018.
The Climate Change Position was developed to establish a national commitment and guide for managing and responding to the increasing risks of climate change. The Climate Change Group anticipate that the position paper will help inform good practice and support the emergency management sector’s leadership role in reducing disaster risk due to climate change.
The AFAC Climate Change Talking Points is a communications resource, presenting key messages to inform frequently asked questions related to links between climate change and emergencies and disasters. It also provides climate change attribution summaries for key natural hazards, including extreme heat events, bushfires, extreme rainfall, flooding, sea level rise and storm surge, thunderstorms, and cyclones.
The Climate Change Group will convene again in February to progress the next phase of the group’s work.