Theme: Sustainable
Dimension: Resilient and sustainable nation
Metric
Australian Disaster Resilience Index
Why does this matter
Even as the world is taking action to reduce emissions, the physical impacts of climate change will increase due to past emissions. Action is needed to build resilience and protect the environment, communities and the economy from the worst of the impacts of climate change. This means we must anticipate, manage and invest in adapting to climate risks.
Has there been progress
The Australian Disaster Resilience Index, released in 2020, found that 52 per cent of the population live in areas with moderate capacity for disaster resilience, 32 per cent in areas with high capacity and 16 per cent in areas with low capacity.
Work is underway across government and the economy more broadly to develop new ways of measuring and tracking climate risk and resilience. The National Climate Risk Assessment will identify and prioritise things that Australians value the most that are of national significance and are at risk of climate change, and a National Adaptation Plan will be developed to adapt to the identified risks. The Australian Climate Service is working to provide extensive climate and natural hazard data, information and advice into a single national view. Efforts are also being made to measure affordability of insurance for housing, in the light of growing climate change risk.1