Climate and disaster risks: What they are, why they matter, and how to consider them in decision making.
The Department of Home Affairs, through the National Resilience Taskforce, has developed a set of interconnected guidance documents to support implementation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework and encourage new conversations about climate and disaster risk described in Profiling Australia’s Vulnerability.
The guidance is designed to help decision makers in the non-trivial task of contextualising the systemic physical impacts of a changing climate. In particular, the guidance provides direction on how to call upon new knowledge, capabilities and processes to consider climate and disaster risk into strategic long-term planning and investment decisions.
It is primarily targeted to help navigate high levels of uncertainty for large-scale investments and high-stakes decisions. However, with further work and greater contextualisation, the principles and concepts could be applied to small-scale investments and disaster risk assessments.
The set of guidance for strategic climate and disaster risk assessment speaks primarily to government, industry and influential community representatives (e.g. community-based organisations and not-for-profit agencies). It addresses the primary decision makers, who can influence whether risks are created or reduced and affect their potential consequences.