Regional Climate Change Adaptation Plans

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (15:20): My question is to the Minister for Climate Change. Could the minister update the house on the progress of implementing regional climate change adaptation plans in line with the SA Strategic Plan target 62?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:21): I thank the honourable member for her most important question.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: We don't need a 12-minute answer on this.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, unfortunately, it is a 12-page answer, so we might have to wait for a little while, but there you go. The CSIRO's State of the Climate 2014 report highlighted the significant impacts that climate change is already having on our community. It shows that since 1910, Australia has faced an overall warming of about 0.9° Celsius. In South Australia, average temperatures have also risen by almost 1° Celsius over the same period, accelerating over the last 40 years, I am advised.

We have also seen a decline in the amount of rainfall across most regions in our state and an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events. Unfortunately, some of the excellent climate change data has been scrapped by the federal government and so we can't utilise that data that we used to have access to to help us in planning for adaptations in the future. That is part of their insidious program of sacking scientists and taking science out of public policy, but there are plenty of other examples of where they have done this.

The Climate Change in Australia initiative remains online, as I understand it, with a trove of quality information accessible to the public. It shows that for the Alinytjara Wilurara and SA Arid Lands regions winter rainfall is projected to decrease and average temperatures are predicted to increase in all seasons. For the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, KI and Northern and Yorke, time spent in drought is projected, with some relatively high level of confidence, I am told, to increase over the course of the century.

Mean sea level will continue to rise and the height of extreme sea level events will also increase. Again, that is with a very high degree of confidence. There is high confidence also that climate change will result in a harsher fire weather climate into the future for us. Scientists are confident that the Murray-Darling Basin region will continue to have higher temperatures than historical averages. It is clear that we have two very important tasks going forward. We must reduce the amount of carbon we emit into the atmosphere and we must work with our regions to ensure that they are able to adapt to the changing climate that they have already been locked into.

South Australia's Climate Change Adaptation Framework, released in 2012, provides for a coordinated and collaborative approach to preparing for the impacts of climate change in South Australia. This framework recognises that preparing for the impacts of climate change is a responsibility that is shared and will require a joint effort by all levels of government, business, communities and individuals. You might recall that, in 2013, this strategy was awarded the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility's Adaptation Champions Award and, in 2013, the Resilient Australia National Award.

Complementing the framework is target 62 from South Australia's Strategic Plan, which is to develop regional climate change adaptation plans in all 12 government regions. Target 62 will also help our state to better prepare for natural disasters, look after our land, our rivers and our wetlands, ensure that industry and agriculture are highly efficient, and provide leadership in managing the Murray-Darling Basin.

I am pleased to advise the chamber that we have now completed regional adaptation plans with the eastern Adelaide, western Adelaide and far north regions. This means that we have now completed plans covering all 12 government regions in the state. Delivery of the RAPs is a major achievement for climate change adaptation in South Australia.

For much of South Australia, the development of the RAPs was the first time that climate change adaptation was discussed on a regional scale. Regions have been able to discuss climate change adaptation with their communities, businesses, universities and their local state and even federal elected members. The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources will now take those regional RAPs and deliver a whole-of-government statewide climate change adaptation plan in response to the completed RAPs. That is a story for another day.