The implications of climate change for emergency management: the example of Australia Online publication date: Wed, 05-Jul-2023
by Jean S. Renouf
International Journal of Emergency Management (IJEM), Vol. 18, No. 2, 2023
Abstract: While Australian emergency services have demonstrated definitive capacity to respond to different disasters, shortcomings identified during the 2017 ex-tropical cyclone Debbie and the 2019/2020 bushfire season underscore their limited readiness in light of a rapidly changing climate. This paper investigates the implications of climate change for emergency services, based on an analysis of documents published by Resilience NSW and using the NSW North Coast region of Australia as a case study, and finds a limited focus on climate change. It argues that emergency services will be faced with increasing uncertainty because of climate change and that institutional changes are necessary to better prepare for the impacts to come. Shifts in mindset, seeing climate change as an immediate threat, leading to a greater transparency about its implications and accompanied with a transformation of the emergency management sector into a better integrated, whole-of-community approach, are necessary to inform planning for future emergency management.
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