Principles of Sustainability: Impact of Climate Change on Sydney, Australia

This report examines the ways in which climate change is predicted to impact Sydney, Australia, including changes in precipitation, sea level, humidity, wind, temperature, water and food supplies, and refugee movements. It also highlights the actions taken to mitigate these impacts.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................1
2. Discussion...........................................................................................................................1
2.1. Change in precipitation................................................................................................1
2.2. Change in Sea level.....................................................................................................2
2.3. Change in humidity, wind and temperature................................................................2
2.4. Effects on water and food supplies..............................................................................3
2.5. Refugee movements....................................................................................................4
2.6. Actions taken...............................................................................................................4
3. Conclusion..........................................................................................................................5
4. References:..........................................................................................................................6

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1. Introduction
The climate of earth has changed throughout the history and this results in new form
of weather patterns that last for several decades (Mahmood et al. 2014). However, today, the
issue has attracted the attention of the entire world as the Earth’s climate is changing faster
than ever before and it is making several changes apart from just change in the weather
patterns. However, climate change in Australia has become an important issue right from the
beginning of 21st century. It is particularly for critical as of the higher impact that it lays on
the coastal communities of Australia because of the population concentration, industry and
commerce. This report shall elaborate on examining the ways in which climate change in
Earth is predicted to impact upon Sydney, Australia. Some of the significant changes that
would cover this report are the change in humidity, change in precipitation, sea level,
temperature and wind. With the same, it shall also cover the other social impacts while taking
into consideration the regional elements like food supplies, refugee movements and water
supplies. The report shall also highlight the actions that have been taken recently for the
mitigating those impacts.
2. Discussion
2.1. Change in precipitation
It is to mention that the greatest health threats of Sydney comes from the climate
change and this is expected to come basically from the extreme weather events like heat
waves and the rise in temperatures along with the ever changing variability of rainfall. With
the same, as per Mahmood et al. (2014), drought is also related to the decrease in mental
health condition, more particularly in the rural areas. It is to note that in the year 2018, the
temperature of Sydney had reached more than 47 degrees. It was the hottest day of the city in
nearly eighty years. Although heat waves are not a new phenomenon in Sydney, but with the

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change in Earth’s climate, heat waves have become more severe, more common and longer
lasting. They are something that have some real impacts on the community well-being and
health and is leading to extensive heat exhaustion and even heat strokes (Dell, Jones and
Olken 2014).
2.2. Change in Sea level
It is to note that according to the data by Neumann et al. (2015), in the last twenty
years, both the coastal and satellite sea level have undergone high level of rise as it has
increased about three centimetres every decade. It is the level that was experienced during the
1920 to 1950 period. Around the Sydney coastline, the sea level has rose relative the land
with a faster rate. It is suspected that the rise in sea level could threaten Sydney. The airport
of Sydney is one of the most vulnerable place in Australia to the rise of sea level as it is
sitting just a few metres above the current day’s sea level. Climate of Sydney is basically
humid subtropical. The average precipitation over here is projected to increase about 0.4 to
2.0 degree centigrade by the year 2030 (Wdowinski et al. 2015).
2.3. Change in humidity, wind and temperature
It is to mention that Sydney is experiencing notable seasonal variation in the monthly
rainfall (Pepler, Coutts-Smith and Timbal 2014). Rain fall all through the year in this city and
most of the rain falls during thirty one days that are centred on February 7, which an average
accumulation of about 4.2 inches. The weather and climate of Sydney is continuously
changing as a response to the warming global climate. Also, as mentioned above, in the year
2018, the temperature of Sydney had reached more than 47 degrees. The temperature has
warmed by just 1 degree centigrade since the year 1910 and this has resulted in a significant
rise in the frequency of the high heat events (Donat et al. 2014). Such a warming has been
seen as an increase in the frequency of the heat events and at the same time, have increased

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the importance and severity of the conditions of droughts during the period of below average
rainfall in the city (Pepler, Coutts-Smith and Timbal 2014). Although heat waves are not a
new phenomenon in Sydney, but with the change in Earth’s climate, heat waves have become
more severe, more common and longer lasting. It is also to mention that increase in the
temperature have been observed across the Australian cities including Sydney in all the
seasons with both the day and night time temperatures that show warming (Bao et al. 2017).
This shifting to a warmer climate in the city has been accompanied by much more extreme
daily heat events. The seasonal temperatures and the record warm monthly temperatures have
been experienced in the recent years and this has made it more likely by the change in Earth’s
climate.
2.4. Effects on water and food supplies
According to Beggs et al. (2015), the Australian farmers depend on a very steady
climate for growing food and raising the livestock. Climate crisis has made it highly difficult
for the farmers to grow food for the Australians. As the climate change in increasing, every
type of Australian farmers are affected, particularly the ones who raise dairy cows, vegetable
and fruits and even the wine growers. According to the study by Hugo (2014), it is suspected
that about 70percent of the wine growing regions in Australia would be less suitable for
growing grapes by the year 2050 and also, less heat stress on the cows would reduce the milk
production by 10 to 25percent and even up to 40percent in the extreme heat wave conditions.
Also, there has been long term of increase in the high fire weather as well as in the length of
the fire season across the larger parts of Australia including Sydney since the year 1950
(Haque, Rahman and Samali 2015). This fire weather has affected much of the Australian
vegetation since the last few decades.
2.5. Refugee movements

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Change in climate has already a very pressing issue for majority of the people all
around the globe today. There are several nations that have become hostile to the immigrants,
while the inaction on the climate change would lead to some catastrophic impacts that is
likely to force thousands of people to migrate (Javeline 2014). In such a setting, the problem
of climate refugees or the climate displaced people is likely to increase in the coming years.
Climate change in Australia has become an important issue right from the beginning of 21st
century. It is particularly for critical as of the higher impact that it lays on the coastal
communities of Australia because of the population concentration, industry and commerce
(Sherval and Hardiman 2014). The ever increasing natural disasters including the rise in
temperatures and desertification would force the people of Sydney to migrate in other parts of
the world in search of some more liveable weather condition.
2.6. Actions taken
Climate change has become one of the biggest challenges for the city of Sydney. The
government has planned a Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan with an aim of targeting 70percent
of reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmospheres across all the local
government areas as well as in their own operations by the year 2030 (Kumar 2015). With the
same, climate adaption strategy too has been prepared by means of working with the
community, businesses as well as all the other levels of the government. With the same,
according to the recent data, the the NSW Government has released the “NSW Climate
Change Policy Framework, which commits NSW to the aspirational objectives of achieving
net-zero emissions by 2050 and helping NSW to become more resilient to a changing climate
(Prugh and Renner 2015). The policy framework defines the NSW Government’s role in
reducing carbon emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change”. In 2014, the
Government released local-scale projections of the future changes in terms of rainfall,
temperature, and other related climate variables for the NSW and the ACT. Such fine-scale

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(10km) projections would help the local government, business and the community in building
resilience in the face of future extreme events and hazards by means of assisting them in
understanding the effects of the climate change in their locality.
3. Conclusion
Hence, it is to conclude from the above analysis that the climate change has already
affected Sydney to a significant level. It is already a dry and hot city and it is expected to get
drier and hotter without any action on the climate change. This is why, it is suspected that the
future climate change over Sydney would track the global trends, which further would cause
in warmer temperatures, rise in the sea levels, acidic ocean waters and the change in rainfall
and temperature regimes.

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4. References:
Bao, J., Sherwood, S.C., Alexander, L.V. and Evans, J.P., 2017. Future increases in extreme
precipitation exceed observed scaling rates. Nature Climate Change, 7(2), p.128.
Beggs, P.J., Katelaris, C.H., Medek, D., Johnston, F.H., Burton, P.K., Campbell, B., Jaggard,
A.K., Vicendese, D., Bowman, D.M., Godwin, I. and Huete, A.R., 2015. Differences in grass
pollen allergen exposure across Australia. Australian and New Zealand journal of public
health, 39(1), pp.51-55.
Dell, M., Jones, B.F. and Olken, B.A., 2014. What do we learn from the weather? The new
climate-economy literature. Journal of Economic Literature, 52(3), pp.740-98.
Donat, M.G., Peterson, T.C., Brunet, M., King, A.D., Almazroui, M., Kolli, R.K., Boucherf,
D., Al‐Mulla, A.Y., Nour, A.Y., Aly, A.A. and Nada, T.A.A., 2014. Changes in extreme
temperature and precipitation in the Arab region: long‐term trends and variability related to
ENSO and NAO. International Journal of Climatology, 34(3), pp.581-592.
Haque, M.M., Rahman, A. and Samali, B., 2016. Evaluation of climate change impacts on
rainwater harvesting. Journal of Cleaner Production, 137, pp.60-69.
Hugo, G., 2014. Immigrant settlement in regional Australia: patterns and processes. Rural
change in Australia: Population, economy, environment, pp.57-82.
Javeline, D., 2014. The most important topic political scientists are not studying: adapting to
climate change. Perspectives on Politics, 12(2), pp.420-434.

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Kumar, S., 2015. Engendering liveable low-carbon smart cities in ASEAN as an inclusive
green growth model and opportunities for regional cooperation. ERIA Discussion Paper
Series ERIA-DP-2015-57.
Mahmood, R., Pielke Sr, R.A., Hubbard, K.G., Niyogi, D., Dirmeyer, P.A., McAlpine, C.,
Carleton, A.M., Hale, R., Gameda, S., Beltrán‐Przekurat, A. and Baker, B., 2014. Land cover
changes and their biogeophysical effects on climate. International Journal of
Climatology, 34(4), pp.929-953.
Mahmood, R., Pielke Sr, R.A., Hubbard, K.G., Niyogi, D., Dirmeyer, P.A., McAlpine, C.,
Carleton, A.M., Hale, R., Gameda, S., Beltrán‐Przekurat, A. and Baker, B., 2014. Land cover
changes and their biogeophysical effects on climate. International Journal of
Climatology, 34(4), pp.929-953.
Neumann, B., Vafeidis, A.T., Zimmermann, J. and Nicholls, R.J., 2015. Future coastal
population growth and exposure to sea-level rise and coastal flooding-a global
assessment. PloS one, 10(3), p.e0118571.
Pepler, A., Coutts‐Smith, A. and Timbal, B., 2014. The role of East Coast Lows on rainfall
patterns and inter‐annual variability across the East Coast of Australia. International Journal
of Climatology, 34(4), pp.1011-1021.
Prugh, T. and Renner, M., 2016. Cities and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Scope of the
Challenge. In State of the World (pp. 77-89). Island Press, Washington, DC.
Sherval, M. and Hardiman, K., 2014. Competing perceptions of the rural idyll: responses to
threats from coal seam gas development in Gloucester, NSW, Australia. Australian
Geographer, 45(2), pp.185-203.

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Wdowinski, S., Bray, R., Kirtman, B.P. and Wu, Z., 2016. Increasing flooding hazard in
coastal communities due to rising sea level: Case study of Miami Beach, Florida. Ocean &
Coastal Management, 126, pp.1-8.