Image by bertknot via Flickr.
The devastating projected impacts of climate change and extreme weather events for government and infrastructure assets will be a focus of the first Xtreme Weather Conference, to be held at the Sofitel Brisbane on March 20, 2018.
Climate impacts are already costing world governments hundreds of billions of dollars per year, bleeding the United States of $240 billion USD annually for the past decade, according to a recent report by the Universal Ecological Fund. The costs are projected to increase sharply as extreme weather events increase in frequency and intensity.
The Xtreme Weather conference will bring together climate change experts and local government planners, academics and emergency services to share information on climate change and its impacts on the government and commercial sectors, and illustrate the social and physical impact on communities and tourism — so that governments can start factoring these impacts into budgets, and investing in measures to mitigate them.
Professor Will Steffen of the Climate Council Australia will give the opening keynote address at the conference. The Council is the privately funded successor to the former Climate Commission, which was abolished by the Abbott Government in 2013. It is regarded as Australia’s independent and authoritative voice on climate change.
Around 150 delegates from local government, construction, planning, architecture and design industries, academia and emergency services are expected to attend.
Other speakers in Professor Jean Palutikof, Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, and Jonathan Barratt, CEO of Celsius Pro Australia who will review advances in forecasting, climate change adaptation and innovation available to reduce the impact of extreme weather on communities.
Verity Morgan-Schmidt, CEO of Farmers for Climate Action, will discuss how to manage the risks of climate variability and extremes in Australian agriculture.
Retired Admiral Chris Barrier will end the day discussing disaster management, including insights into the role of military response, cross-border collaborations, disaster management in the digital age and case studies focused on emergency management technologies.
Other speakers include Professor Hilary Bambrick (Head of the School of Public Health and Social Work at QUT), Dr Martin Rice (Head of Research at the Climate Council, and Professor Karen Hussey (Director of the Centre for Policy Futures at the University of Queensland).
The Xtreme Weather Conference is supported by The Climate Council Australia and will include a one-hour interactive panel session, focusing on how to effectively communicate on climate change to different audiences by making problems relevant and local.
The panel will be moderated by Dr Martin Rice Head of Research at Climate Council Australia.
