By Staff Writer

The CSIRO has received $330,000 in Federal Government funding to develop an online tool to help local councils and communities adapt to climate change.

Announced by Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water Senator Penny Wong, the web resource will give local level decision makers better access to climate change information.

“It will help local governments, researchers and the community tailor climate change projections to their local area,” Senator Wong said in a statement.

“Projects like this help local communities learn more about the effects that climate change is likely to have on them and so better prepare for them.”

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability has also launched a climate change adaptation toolkit for local councils.

Launched by Melbourne Mayor Robert Doyle at an ICLEI Oceania forum, the Local Government Climate Change Adaption Toolkit is claimed to be a world-first in adaptive responses to climate change.

“This is a very valuable resource because it goes beyond a risk management template. It has a flexibility that makes it work across a range of environments,” he said.

“It’s comprehensive and it’s the result of actually making it work – the result of a one-year pilot with five councils from across difference regions in Australia.”

The new resource can be downloaded from the ICLEI Oceania Local Government Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit website.

You can also view a presentation by ICLEI Oceania manager of climate change adaptation, Dr Hartmut Fuenfgeld, explaining how the toolkit works.