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Climate Change

Climate change is likely to impact almost all sectors of society and the economy. Changes are already being experienced in Australia (such as the prevalence of droughts), and scientific consensus warns with increasing confidence of many varied and more serious impacts to come in the future. Even with considerable cuts to global greenhouse gas emissions the lag in the climatic system means these impacts are unavoidable and communities must ready themselves to deal with them. In Victoria, we have already observed:  

  • An 0.8 degree increase in maximum and minimum temperatures since 1950, with 2007 being Victoria's hottest year on record
  • A decline in total rainfall of 13%
  • Prolonged and severe droughts

Metropolitan Melbourne’s future climate, including that of Whitehorse, is expected to be even more hot and dry, with increased extreme weather events including heatwaves, storms and flash flooding.

Climate Change Adaptation Plan

The pdf icon  Whitehorse City Council Climate Change Adaptation Plan (849.36kB) addresses the impacts of climate change in the municipality. The plan addresses the impacts of climate change already facing Council such as wind, rain, hail storms, heatwaves and prolonged drought.  It looks at how these factors affect the health and safety of the community, disrupt Council services and damage public assets. This includes ways Council can further improve its buildings and other assets, services and programs as well as the resilience of the Whitehorse community. 

The development of the adaptation plan builds on the pdf icon Whitehorse Climate Change Risk Assessment Report (1.28MB) that identified a number of priority areas where Council or the community could become vulnerable to the impacts of climate change if no action was taken over time to mitigate or adapt to climate change.

For more information, visit the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency at www.climatechange.gov.au or download The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers published by the Australian Academy of Science (2010) – an easy to understand booklet that explains climate change in an Australian context.  

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