The concern with climate change concerns and associated risks make international headlines regularly. This is particularly true in Australia. Byron Shire Council in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, for instance, in its Climate Change Adaptation Plan makes note these concerns and risks.

“Australia’s climate has warmed by 1.44 degrees Celsius since national records began in 1910.” (1)

“Following a prolonged and widespread period of drought in late 2019, many regions of Australia including Byron Shire witnessed brushfires of an unprecedented scale and intensity. Our upper catchments saw rainforest of high ecological importance burn, which fires extending through several National Parks including nearly 5000 hectares of the World Heritage listed Nightcap Range. This had major impacts on local residents and biodiversity within this important region.” (2)

“Just as the brushfires were coming to a halt, we then experienced major rainfall events in early February 2020. On 7 February the BOM recorded 275mm of rainfall in a 24 hour period in Byron Bay” (3)

“Most recently in March 2021, the East Coast of Australia including Bryon Shire experienced heavy and prolonged downpours leading to another flash flooding event throughout the region. Byron Shire is no stranger to inundation with the last flooding event occurring just months prior to the March floods.” (4)

To assist NSW local governments in developing climate risk management plans, the NSW Department of Planning, Industry & Environment (5), published the Climate Risk Ready NSW Guide. The guide outlines the steps an organization can take to identify, prioritize, and mitigate climate related risks. It also recommends that climate related risks be integrated into the organization’s Enterprise Risk Management Plan (ERM). The basis of the ERM process is the International Organization for Standards (ISO) Enterprise Risk Management guide 31000. This piece looks at the plan, the identified climate risk and mitigative efforts of Byron Shire NSW Australia.

Climate Change Adaptation Plan

In 2020 the Shire Council partnered with its insurer, Statewide Mutual, to carry out a comprehensive climate change risk assessment. Using data from multiple sources, the Shire Council assessed the identified risks and developed the Climate Change Adaptation Plan. In alignment with the Climate Risk Ready NSW Guide, the adaptation plan will be reviewed every five years to make sure any necessary adjustments are made based on the best available scientific data.

The plan states the Council’s understanding of the problem, specifies two fundamental goals and four climate risks considered to have a high level of occurrence. The understanding is:

“Climate change is expected to affect a wide range of services provided by local governments including infrastructure and utilities, emergency services, public health, safety and wellbeing, and environmental management. It is therefore essential that Councils’ make operational adjustments to limit disruption to these areas, and manage the risk to the local community and environment.” (6)

The goals are:

1. Achieve 100% net zero emissions by 2025.
2. Source 100% of its energy through renewable sources by 2027.

The four high level of climate risks identified in the climate change risk analysis are:

1. Flooding due to extreme rainfall.
2. Coastal storm surges due to severe storms and seal level risk.
3. Extreme heat.
4. Increased fire weather.

The risk categories are assigned adaptation items. The plan contains 100 adaptation items. In Appendix A of the plan specific actions for each of the 100 adaptation items are specified. Table 1 below is an example which combines the Risk category, the adaptation item by number and the specific action to be taken for the adaptation item.

Accomplishments as of 2019/20

In the fiscal year 2019/20 the Shire listed several climate related improvements. Among them are:

• A net reduction in emissions of 26% (9.776 TCO2-e) since monitoring began.
• Over 600 kilowatts of solar installed across Council assets.
• Multiple energy efficiency audits and upgrades of Council assets.
• 100% carbon neutral electricity contract.
• Shire-wide LED street lighting upgrade (in progress).
• Feasibility studies into a potential 5-megawatt solar farm and bioenergy facility. (7)

While these accomplishments are not directly linked to the adaptation plan, they indicate the direction of the Shire. The solar farm feasibility study, the 600 kilowatts solar installed across Council assets, and the net reduction of emissions directly align with the overall goals of the Shire.  While the LED street lighting upgrade and the energy efficiency audits and upgrades help reduce the energy consumption and assist in meeting the zero emissions goal.

Summary

The Shire of Byron has undertaken several climate change actions. The most comprehensive of which is the development of the Climate Change Adaptation Plan. The plan developed using the

Climate Risk Ready NSW Guide identified the highest climate related risks and listed 100 adaptations to assist with mitigating the adverse consequences of these risks. Associated with each adaptation is an action or responsibility item. Also consistent with the NSW Guide, the Shire’s plan is to be reevaluated every five years and adjustments made based on the latest science.

Observations

Looking at the goals and the plan’s action items several observations can be made. First, the adaptation plan is an example of how NSW is not only encouraging through its guide, the development of Climate related actions, but also encouraging the adoption of ERM, specifically ISO 31000.

Second the goals are lofty, but can a local government really achieve 100% zero carbon emissions by 2025? This question is raised for two reasons. First, is the goal strictly associated with the Shire Council’s operations or the broader Shire geographically? If it is the broader Shire, then every resident of the Shire must buy into the goal and work to achieve it. Even if it means moving to all electric vehicles.  If it is just the Shire’s activities, then that is a possibility, but given that many of the action items require budget allocations and 2025 is only a couple of years away, does the Shire have the resources needed to go all electric vehicles?  This seems problematic when budget authorization is needed for backup generator for flood pumps. Several generators are far less expensive than changing or adding to the Shire’s electric vehicle fleet. The irony should not be lost in that the generators will have to be fossil fuel powered, because in the case of a power outage, they will not work.  Having a backup generator which does not work defeats the purpose of having a backup. Further, if the generators are needed before 2025, having a backup generator which is fossil fuel operated adversely impacts the goal of zero emissions by 2025.

Lastly, the Shire’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan is a good example of what local governments around the world should be doing with respect to climate related risks. It also highlights the problem of keeping the goals and objectives realistic. Local governments have limited resources and are relatively small geographically. Thus, their direct impact on a global problem is also small. Consequently, the concentration of risk mitigation effort should be on the infrastructure, as the Byron Shire Council is doing with the backup generators. Solar panels, and solar farms are nice, but in a flood or fire, the integrity of the infrastructure is paramount, because it can help save live. Keeping flood pumping stations, bridges, and streets operational is far more important than whether the solar farm is up and running.  Just an observation.

Endnotes

1. Byron Shire Council, Byron Shire Council Climate Change Adaptation Plan, page 8, https://www.byron.nsw.gov.au/services/environment.climate-change-plans-strategies/lcimate-change-adaptation-plan.
2. Ibid page 9.
3. Ibid page 10.
4. Ibid page 11.
5. New South Wales Department of Planning, Industry & Environment, 2021, Climate Risk Ready NSW Guide, https://www.climat.change environment.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/nsw%20climate%20risk%ready%20guide.pdf
6. Byron Shire Council, page 20.
7. Ibid page 19.

BIO

James J. Kline has worked for federal, state, and local government. He has over ten years of supervisory and managerial experience in both the public and private sector.  He has consulted on economic, quality and workforce development issues for state and local governments.  He has authored numerous articles on quality and risk management. His book “Enterprise Risk Management in Government: Implementing ISO 31000:2018” is available on Amazon.  He is the editor of “Quality Disrupted’ which is available on Amazon.