In June 2021 the Australian State of New South Wales (NSW) published Climate Risk Ready NSW Guide. The guide is designed to assist local government in developing a climate change risk assessment plan. This piece looks at the Draft Climate Change Risk Assessment and Adaption Action Plan developed by the Hawkesbury Council of NSW.

This plan, consistent with the approach outlined in the NSW guide aligns with the International Organization for Standardization’s ERM guide ISO 31000.  As such, the Climate Change Risk Assessment and Adaption Action Plan will be integrated into the Council’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) plan, as well as the Net Zero Emissions and Water Efficiency Strategy and the Resilience Strategy.

Basis of the Plan

The basis of the plan is an understanding of climate risk. Climate risk is defined as “when a hazard creates the potential for negative consequence due to the exposure and vulnerability of human or ecological systems.” (1)

Based on the climate assessment model, the council is concerned with rising temperatures which could cause draughts and increase the likelihood of brush fires. Similarly, if a flood of an historical scale, like the one which occurred in 1867, some 90,000 residents would require evacuation and hundreds of residents would likely be unable to safely evacuate. With most of the Council services and facilities located on the south side of the Hawkesbury River, those stuck on the north side of the river or in flooded areas being unable to access essential services. (9)

The plan focuses on short-, medium-, and long-term measures which allow the council to address the risks and impacts of climate change within the Hawkesbury Local Government Area.

Climate Risks

Hawkesbury has identified four key climate risks. These are:

1. Disruption to Council Services.
2. Impacts on workforce wellbeing and productivity.
3. Increased costs of service provisions.
4. Extra demand per capita for Council services.

They have identified seventeen immediate consequences distributed among the four key risks.

Below are examples of the immediate consequences under each identified by risk.

Disruption of Council Services

• Closure of physical sites due to debris or pollutants or unsafe operating limits.
• Closure of river crossing leading to isolation of one side of the river from service provision.
• Cancellation of outdoor work and services.

Impacts on Workforce wellbeing and productivity

2.1 Stress and fatigue from external pressures, complaints, and litigation with increasing climate events.

2.2 Increasing staff absences as a result of physical illness from smoke, pollutants, disease vectors, heat-stress conditions.

2.3 Lower morale from larger workloads and other intermediate impacts.

Increased costs of service provisions

3.1 Increasing repair and replacement costs due to asset damage.

3.2 Rising costs of insurance and loss of insurance.

3.3 Increased costs of maintenance, reduced asset capacity and asset life.

3.4 Cost of re-scheduling projects and business-as-usual activities, extra administration contract variations, and staffing.

Extra demand per capita for Council services

• Increased events management, clean-up assistance, and waste collection and management for the community.
• Additional development applications for rebuilds and more frequent revisions and updates to strategic plan and associated overlays.

Based on these impacts the Council has identified key adaptation measures.

Adaptation Measures

These key measures are:

M1 Relocate critical Council Services

M2 Improve organizational governance, planning and processes for climate risk management.

M3 Assess and accelerate progress on implementation of selected adaptation of selected adaptation measures identified in Hawkesbury City Council’s prior plan.

M4 Build partnerships and advocacy capacity.

M5 Strengthen supporter and facilitator activities.

M6 Improve green and blue infrastructure across the region.

Under each of these measures the council has identified priority actions and the risks to be addressed. Table 1 below shows the actions and risks associated with a portion of M1 Relocation critical Council Services.

Conclusion

The Draft Climate Change Risk Assessment and Adaptation Action Plan of the Hawkesbury Council of NSW uses the Climate Risk Ready NSW Guide. Thus, it is an example of a higher level of government providing guidance to a lower level of government on risk assessment and mitigation. In this case, Climate Change related risks.

Using the various climate models available with the guide, the Council identified two important risks. These are draughts and floods. Draughts increase the chances of wildfires. While a flood of historical dimensions like the one in 1867 could cause significant dislocation and service disruption.

Based on this information the council identified the risks that need to be mitigated and developed a risk mitigation plan.

There are two major takeaways from the Draft Climate Change Risk Assessment and Adaption Action Plan developed by the Hawkesbury Council of NSW. The first is that the NSW climate guide aided the Hawkesbury Council in developing it mitigation strategy. Consequently, it can be seen as a model which other governments around the world may want to consider using. Second, as the discussion notes in Table 1, the council may not be able to mitigate all or some of the risks. The problem may require assistance from other entities, be they higher levels of government or the private sector.

Endnote

1. Hawkesbury Council, 2023, Draft Climate Change Risk Assessment and Adaptation Action Plan, September 12, page 8, https://www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/-data/assets/pf-file/006/244590/20230912AT1tolrem4.31pdf
2. Ibid page 9.
3. Ibid page 57.

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.