Climate Change Adaptation Strategies

This assignment delves into the multifaceted impacts of climate change and analyzes diverse adaptation strategies employed across various sectors. It examines case studies illustrating these approaches in areas such as agriculture, tourism, and social policy. Furthermore, the assignment discusses organizational change for sustainability and highlights the importance of adapting to flood risk under a changing climate.

ESSAY

RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE CHANGING
CLIMATE FOR AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS
Within business, there are different set of issues which are faced by management. Among
these, one of the main problems which cannot be controlled is climatic change. This is a type of
business issue because of which financial reporting, legal responsibilities, reputation, supply
chain, operations and regulatory obligations get affected1. Further, change in temperature,
extreme weather conditions, availability of water, etc. have their direct impact over the
organization. In this present report, different types of risks which are faced by the organizations
in Australia will be discussed that will help in developing different set of strategies through
which issues related to climate can be reduced.
With the end of this century, global temperature is likely to be raised by 2 degrees. In this
context, international negotiations have aimed to reduce future carbon emissions as it continues
to have limited success. Further, it will become difficult for any country to meet the challenges
for their citizens and infrastructure. Main concern for Australia is to protect the health of people.
Policies and regulations are highly affected with the changing climatic condition. With the
alteration in climate, one of the main causes because of this is effect of greenhouse gas.
Currently, government commitments which fall under Kyoto has focused on reducing the
emission of greenhouse gases which is extended to the year 20122. In this respect, business
operations will highly get affected with the future climate policies. As a result, it will increase
the prices for electricity, carbon taxes, tradable emission permits, energy standards, etc. There
are different types of equipment and technologies which can be used by organizations to reduce
the effect of emission of various gases. However, industries like capital-intensive sector,
turnover for replacing machineries or equipment would cost millions and this leads to arise
sovereign risk of standards and investments. One of the main risks which organizations have to
1
Benn, Suzanne and Andrew Griffiths. Organizational change for corporate sustainability.
Routledge. 2014.
2
Kiem, Anthony S., and Emma K. Austin. "Drought and the future of rural communities:
Opportunities and challenges for climate change adaptation in regional Victoria,
Australia." Global Environmental Change 23, no. 5 (2013): 1307-1316.
2

face is increase in cost as new schemes will be introduced and to reduce the negative impact of
environment, firms have to make use of technology that will increase their cost3.
A research was conducted by Carbon Disclosure Project 2006. Viewpoints were taken
from Australian and New Zealand investors regarding issuers related to climate change and
greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, following findings were found:
 Because of human activities, overwhelming evidence is gathered which is causing
climatic change4.
 Investment value gets affected due to change in the climate.
 Risk and opportunities among countries totally depends upon the type of products and
services which are provided by the firm.
 Organizations do understand the risk which prevail in the environment because of
climatic change however, the implementation is limited to reduce risk.
 Uncertainty in sales and profit margin the issues faced by organizations.
As stated above, there are different set of risks which are involved because of climate
change however, there are also opportunities for companies when they take concerted action over
climate change5. In this context, it includes regulatory intelligence, competitive advantages,
corporate positioning and building up new market. In this context, one of the best examples for
this is billion-dollar trade of carbon and energy market.
Further, there are different set of issues which are faced by companies because of climate
change. With this respect, transportation of products is highly effected. Organizations fail to
make their products or services reach to customers because of climatic conditions. Heavy rain or
below degree temperature causes issues for firms to transport their goods to the service users.
This negatively affects the business operations as firm fail to sell off their complete production6.
Moreover, in Australia, there are many firms which export their products and due to climate
3 Gössling, Stefan and Daniel Scott, C. Michael Hall, Jean-Paul Ceron, and Ghislain Dubois.
"Consumer behaviour and demand response of tourists to climate change." Annals of
Tourism Research 39, no. 1 (2012): 36-58.
4 Catford, Jane A., and Peter Davies. "Predicting novel riparian ecosystems in a changing
climate." Ecosystems 16, no. 3 (2013): 382-400.
5 Wilby, Robert L., and Rod Keenan. "Adapting to flood risk under climate change."
Progress in Physical Geography (2012): 0309133312438908.
3

change, goods get defected by the time it reaches to final customers. This shows that
organizations are highly affected due to change in climate.
There are different departments that work together in order to achieve their organizational
goals and objectives. However, issue arises when workers fail to perform their roles and
responsibilities effectively and efficiently7. Due to climatic change, rate of absence increases.
Health is highly affected and this creates issues as workers take frequent leaves due to which
production has negative impact. There are storm conditions faced in Australia because of which
organizations have to shut down their firm for many days. In such situations, organizations face
huge losses.
With the emission of greenhouse gas, it would place a price over carbon that will drive a
wide array of market opportunities. In the few years, carbon will become one of the world’s
biggest commodity markets. This is a type of opportunity which Australian business gets; as till
this date, there is no market for carbon in Australia8. In the last two years, carbon market has
exploded and has highly driven by Koyoto Protocol. In the year 2005, carbon market was worth
US$10 billion and by the end of 2006, it became worth of US$22 billion.
Due to policies made on climate changes, there is one sector which gets highly benefited
and this is agriculture. Because of climatic conditions, in Australia, farmers are given with
annual income of $2.5 billion dollars. There are cases in which crop is fully destroyed because of
frequently changing climatic conditions.
Opportunity to Australian business due to climate change is clean energy technologies.
Employment in this sector was 1.7 million and in the year 2005, clean energy market was worth
US$56 billion9. This shows that growth of clean energy is increasing at an increasing rate and
sector is creating opportunities for markets around the world.
6 Bentley, Peter James., and V. Lynn Meek. "Factors associated with job satisfaction
amongst Australian university academics and future workforce implications." In Job
satisfaction around the academic world, pp. 29-53. Springer Netherlands, 2013.
7 Biggs, Simon, and Helen Kimberley. "Adult ageing and social policy: new risks to
identity." Social Policy and Society 12, no. 02 (2013): 287-297.
8 Yuen, Emma., and Benjamin L. Preston. "Climate change vulnerability assessments as
catalysts for social learning: four case studies in south-eastern Australia." Mitigation and
Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 18, no. 5 (2013): 567-590.
4

Food sector is highly affected because of climate change. There are different types of
foods variety available and it becomes difficult for organizations to protect their food products
from getting spoiled. Different products for food need to have diverse set of materials so that
they will be able to prepare the product. Due to frequent changes in climate, materials which are
required to prepare products are not available for companies.
In Australia, the most dangerous region which can be identified is on the basis of priority
in order to plan and adopt different barriers. Australia is a country which is quite hot because
when there is season, temperature tends to be very high10. Moreover, there exists high impact of
the climate change in mentioned country and with this, many problems occur in conducting the
business operations with efficiency. In the nation, around $32 billion tourists come to visit and
with this, pollution and temperature increases by 2-3 degrees. With this, increase in temperature
will cause bleaching and tourists in the nation has decreased to $1.5 billion. Further, livestock
export industry faces risks related with pests, diseases and heat stress which cost them $17
billion. Moreover, when temperature raises by 2 degrees, then it affects the national carrying
capacity by 40%. Revenue generated from total agricultural sector is around $72 billion.
However, recent drought occurred due to climate change, overall cost of nation has decreased
due to fall of $6 billion in this sector.
The average waterfall from Murray-Darling to Melbourne is 15% and this increases
temperature by 2 degrees. However, if 20% irrigation allocation will be reduced then GDP would
be $750 million by the end of 201011. These are the types of issues or risks which are faced by
organizations because of climate change.
Increase in temperature raises the probability of heat waves. It was in the year 2005 when
the whole world and more specifically, Australia faced the warmest year on record. In this
nation, temperature recorded was 0.9 degree. In order to develop a product, different types of
machineries were used and because of high temperature, equipment got highly heated and
9 Anwar, Muhuddin Rajin., and Georgina Kelly. "Adapting agriculture to climate change: a
review." Theoretical and applied climatology 113, no. 1-2 (2013): 225-245.
10 Scott, Daniel, Stefan Gössling, and C. Michael Hall. "International tourism and climate
change." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 3, no. 3 (2012): 213-232.
11 Pawson, S. M., A. Brin, E. G., and J. A. Parrotta. "Plantation forests, climate change and
biodiversity."Biodiversity and Conservation 22, no. 5 (2013): 1203-1227.
5

sometimes, there are cases in which they break down. This increases the cost and as a result, in
order to balance the situation, price of products gets enhanced as well. Further, with increase in
temperature, product which should be kept at minimum temperature also gets affected as the
cooling machines are made for certain limit in which it can freeze and due to high temperature
outside, it affects the products.
Many cities in Australia face high issues related to water and this is because of low
average waterfall. Further, due to high temperature, evaporation of water takes place. Due to
many droughts situations in Australia, issues related to water has become a controversial topic.
In this context, supply of water in Goulburn is below 40% since 2004 and by the end of 2005, it
has dropped by 10%. Most of the water supplying companies are facing serious issues in making
water available to its consumers12. Due to climatic change, raw materials which are required to
develop products are not supplied and these result in losses and organizations do not achieve
their desired goals and objectives.
In 20th century, the average global sea level rose by 10-20 cm and it is estimated that by
the year 2100, it will raise by 10 to 88 cm. As per the warning given by Australian Greenhouse
Office, sea level increases the risk of storm surges and tropical cyclones. Thus, chances of
increased risk for tourist centres and for some population raises as well. With rainfall intensities
and higher peak winds, tropical cyclones are expected to become intense. In 2006, Northern
Australia experienced about 5 cyclones in the states of Monica and Larry13. Further, it also
experienced more categories of cyclones in the recent years. This shows that the change in
climate will bring change to intensive cyclones. In addition to this, it will also raise the issue
related to coral damages, breach erosion, property damage and increase in coastal inundation.
As per the report made by CSIRO, climatic change in Australia has increased heat till 4-
25% by the year 2020. This has been caused by forest fire danger index ratings. With this
12
Benn, Suzanne and Andrew Griffiths. Organizational change for corporate sustainability.
Routledge. 2014.
13
Kiem, Anthony S., and Emma K. Austin. "Drought and the future of rural communities:
Opportunities and challenges for climate change adaptation in regional Victoria,
Australia." Global Environmental Change 23, no. 5 (2013): 1307-1316.
6

respect, rate of issues which are caused with the bushfire has caused many forests to get
destroyed due to high heat. It is having direct impact over the organizations that deal with
furniture and other paper based materials. Apart from that, it has also lead to increasing price for
such products in which trees are required. Further, the average snow coverage has also been
decreased in Australia. When the climatic condition of any country is not effective or frequently
changing, then it directly affects the tourism sectors. People prefer to visit those countries in
which they will have pleasant climate. However, tourism in Australia is getting affected because
of frequent change in climate.
Carbon has high negative impact over human health and Environmental Protection
Agency has proposed different set of regulations for emission of carbon as it generates heating
debate about climate. It is important that organizations should explain the risk which arise due to
climatic change. Impact of change in climate has become more serious because of recent flood
which occurred in Europe and drought in California14. This has caused about 90% of natural
catastrophe losses in the year 2013 and $120 billion as per Munich Re. Regulations which are
made by the government of Australia have suggested that organization should provide more
information related to issues faced in relation to climate change. Indirect and direct exposure for
firms arise because of the impact of carbon pricing. All business operations starting from
distribution to sales is affected due to carbon pricing.
Further, weather with extreme heat or cold has the potential to damage assets as well as
profitability and that also, in an unexpected way. Organizations which fail to take such risks
suffer significantly and get less managerial exposure. There are firms which focus over
communicating liability directly to emission of carbon regulation. This shows that they are at the
trading schemes. These are the reasons because of which carbon price raises over time. However,
organizations ignore this and it changes the demand of products and services.
In this modern world, people are concerned regarding their health and they know the
negative impact of climatic change over their health. However, when organization develops
strategies, they become able to make their customers develop trust and confidence over the
14 Gössling, Stefan and Daniel Scott, C. Michael Hall, Jean-Paul Ceron, and Ghislain Dubois.
"Consumer behaviour and demand response of tourists to climate change." Annals of
Tourism Research 39, no. 1 (2012): 36-58.
7

product and then firm achieves set goals and objectives effectually15. Companies need to develop
their products and services in such a way that customers would get benefited and through this,
management can develop opportunities for their business. Ultimate aim of firm is to gain
maximum profit and this is only possible when they will be able to satisfy their customers’ needs
and requirements. Issues which are faced by organization with respect to climate changes should
be analysed and they should take appropriate steps to overcome the same. In this way, firm will
be able to convert risk into opportunity. In this way, company will be able to gain competitive
advantages.
Another type of risk which is faced by organizations is from opinions of public and
media16. As stated above, people in this modern world gain knowledge through media and if any
information provided is negative about the products and services of company, then they will face
serious issues with respect to sales and profit. There are many conditions in which organization
faces issues over their products because of climatic changes. Goods get spoiled due to change in
climate and when this type of information reaches at people, then they develop a negative
perception in their mind regarding product. Media coverage is high and they have regular
updates over the issues which are faced by country. Information provided regarding climate has
helped the government of this country to take appropriate steps and to develop awareness among
people17. In this context, Montreal Kyoto conducted a meeting in which media helped in
providing public awareness and conveyed the decisions which were taken there. This meeting
was helpful in providing adequate information. In this context, 600 stories were printed in US in
the year 2005. Print media was helpful in providing proper information and awareness to people
around the world related to issues which arise due to climate change. This also creates negative
impact in customer’s mind and they develop a feeling of not making use of products which are
15 Catford, Jane A., and Peter Davies. "Predicting novel riparian ecosystems in a changing
climate." Ecosystems 16, no. 3 (2013): 382-400.
16 Wilby, Robert L., and Rod Keenan. "Adapting to flood risk under climate change."
Progress in Physical Geography (2012): 0309133312438908.
17 Bentley, Peter James., and V. Lynn Meek. "Factors associated with job satisfaction
amongst Australian university academics and future workforce implications." In Job
satisfaction around the academic world, pp. 29-53. Springer Netherlands, 2013.
8

provided by the organizations. On the other hand, if information which is provided by media is
positive, then this will be helpful in developing a positive image in customer’s minds.
From this report, it can be concluded that countries are facing many issues in relation
with change in climate. This directly and indirectly affects people and organizations. It is
important that people around the world should understand seriousness of climatic change and act
accordingly. There are many issues which are faced by countries and it is also important that
government take appropriate steps through which they will be able to take corrective actions so
that impact of climate change on businesses can be reduced. In order to present information and
provide people with relevant information, media proves to be very helpful. In the modern world,
people make use of internet and it enables to spread data quickly.
9

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anwar, Muhuddin Rajin., and Georgina Kelly. "Adapting agriculture to climate change: a
review." Theoretical and applied climatology 113, no. 1-2 (2013): 225-245.
Benn, Suzanne and Andrew Griffiths. Organizational change for corporate sustainability.
Routledge. 2014.
Bentley, Peter James., and V. Lynn Meek. "Factors associated with job satisfaction amongst
Australian university academics and future workforce implications." In Job satisfaction
around the academic world, pp. 29-53. Springer Netherlands, 2013.
Biggs, Simon, and Helen Kimberley. "Adult ageing and social policy: new risks to identity."
Social Policy and Society 12, no. 02 (2013): 287-297.
Catford, Jane A., and Peter Davies. "Predicting novel riparian ecosystems in a changing climate."
Ecosystems 16, no. 3 (2013): 382-400.
Gössling, Stefan and Daniel Scott, C. Michael Hall, Jean-Paul Ceron, and Ghislain Dubois.
"Consumer behaviour and demand response of tourists to climate change." Annals of
Tourism Research 39, no. 1 (2012): 36-58.
Kiem, Anthony S., and Emma K. Austin. "Drought and the future of rural communities:
Opportunities and challenges for climate change adaptation in regional Victoria,
Australia." Global Environmental Change 23, no. 5 (2013): 1307-1316.
Pawson, S. M., A. Brin, E. G., and J. A. Parrotta. "Plantation forests, climate change and
biodiversity."Biodiversity and Conservation 22, no. 5 (2013): 1203-1227.
Scott, Daniel, Stefan Gössling, and C. Michael Hall. "International tourism and climate change."
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 3, no. 3 (2012): 213-232.
Wilby, Robert L., and Rod Keenan. "Adapting to flood risk under climate change." Progress in
Physical Geography (2012): 0309133312438908.
Yuen, Emma., and Benjamin L. Preston. "Climate change vulnerability assessments as catalysts
for social learning: four case studies in south-eastern Australia." Mitigation and
Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 18, no. 5 (2013): 567-590.
10