The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan (NARP) for Marine Biodiversity and Resources identifies research required across Australia to inform policy development to help managers of coastal ecosystems and the marine environment and associated industries and communities prepare for the consequences of climate change.

• 2012 Update
• Literature Review

The 2012 Marine Report Card is an updated version of the 2009 Marine Report Card and demonstrates that climate change is having significant impacts on Australia’s marine ecosystems. The report card provides information about the current and predicted-future state of Australia’s marine climate and its impact on our marine biodiversity. The report card also outlines actions that are underway to help our marine ecosystems adapt to climate change.

View the video (2.07)

The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Fund NCCARF has developed an overview of research priorities to help Australia better adapt to climate change regarding the diversity and health of life in the marine environment.

In October and November 2010, the Marine Adaptation Network held a series of focused strategy (‘roundtable’) meetings with key marine stakeholders across Australia to assess the concerns and needs of industry, government, and non-government organisations (NGOs) in attempting to reduce and manage the risks associated with climate change impacts on the marine environment and various marine sectors.
View the REPORT (4.94 MB)

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Climate change in IPCC usage refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity. The usage differs from that in the Framework Convention on Climate Change, where climate change refers to a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.

Adaptation is the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.

Resilience is defined as the ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning, the capacity for self-organisation, and the capacity to adapt naturally to stress and change.

Vulnerability is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude and rate of climate change and the variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity and its adaptive capacity.

The Marine Adaptation Network consists of five inter-connecting themes:

• Integration
• Biodiversity & Resources
• Communities
• Markets
• Policy

The Marine Adaptation Network will improve understanding of, and enhance, adaptive capacity of all sectors within the marine space using an integrative model (Figure 1) of collaboration, engagement and cooperation that cross-cuts between biodiversity & resources, communities, markets and policy (including management and governance).

Figure 1: Integrative model of the Marine Adaptation Network

June 2009
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) in 2007.  Since then, a number of new scientific results have been published that expand our understanding of climate science. Some of the key findings since the last IPCC assessment are provided in this brief.

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