CASE STUDY 3.7: Climate change for councils
Many climate change impacts will be experienced at regional and local levels, so councils may often be best placed to manage these risks. Climate change has the potential to damage council assets, cause serious disruptions to the delivery of council services, generate unbudgeted financial impacts and affect the wellbeing of the community, particularly those vulnerable to weather extremes. It is therefore important that local and regional councils are provided with the information and guidance they need to prepare for the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
We carried out a small case study to guide the development and delivery of climate change information for local government. Responses collected in a survey and interviews suggest that existing climate change information is not accessible or applicable to many council operational tasks, and council staff are not resourced nor required to interpret and apply existing information.
With so many councils and so many information needs, resources may be best directed to developing a set of guidelines that step local government staff through finding and applying climate change information rather than developing council-specific products.
Completed: July 2018
More information: Mandy Hopkins, ESCC Hub Knowledge Broker
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