Sustainable community infrastructure is essential for the day-to-day functioning and wellbeing of communities and will become even more critical as Australia’s urban centres continue to grow and expand. Australians are set for a humid, stormy summer accelerated by a marine heatwave north of the country, as global warming has fuelled an increase in humidity and heat. Inquiries such as the NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry have highlighted the systemic improvements in emergency response and preparedness required for extreme weather events. Organisations need to understand how they will be impacted and start preparing now!
In the Australian Local Government risk rankings in the JFT Public Sector Risk Report 2024, both climate change as well as disaster and catastrophic events are in the top five risks identified by Local Government. The top underlying factors for disaster or catastrophic events included bushfire, flood, cyclones, storms, drought, earthquakes and climate change. The unpredictability and severity of extreme events, inadequate funding available for mitigation of assets in catastrophic disaster, as well as community awareness of Council’s emergency response plans were also key factors identified by local government. Audit offices such as the Queensland Audit Office have highlighted that strong and robust risk management practices are more important than ever and that with climate change, businesses must proactively manage risk, implement business continuity planning and disaster recovery plans, and exercise them periodically.
Understanding the challenge
As global temperatures rise due to climate change, the frequency and intensity of heatwaves and storms increase. Organisations need to plan for more extreme events occurring more frequently in the future. Climate change reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change and other organisations demonstrate that major climate-related events, including heatwaves and storms, are projected to become more frequent, prolonged, and intense.
Organisations need to prepare for the economic impacts of climate-related disruptions, including losses due to power outages, water shortages, and operational delays.
Heatwave Impacts on Organisations
- Operational impact: Workforce productivity is impacted by heat-related illnesses and reduced outdoor work capacity. Water scarcity further challenges operations, particularly for industries reliant on significant water resources. Proactive measures are essential to mitigate these disruptions and ensure continuity.
- Infrastructure impact: As heatwaves, cyclones and storms become more extreme, the infrastructure which organisations rely on and deliver, or manage – like roads, public transportation, and communication systems – are heavily affected. Delays in logistics and transportation can cause significant disruptions.
- Supply chain vulnerabilities: Extreme events can disrupt global and local supply chains, particularly in regions where critical production facilities may be forced to shut down.
- Impact on workforce: Increases in heat-related illnesses, reduced outdoor work hours, and workforce safety concerns from heatwaves, storms and cyclones will adversely impact workforces.
- Water access: Drought conditions and water scarcity can severely impact organisations and businesses, particularly those relying on large amounts of water for production or operations.
- Electrical grid stress: Heatwaves put the electrical grid under immense strain, causing blackouts. Along with an aged network and ad-hoc maintenance of transmission lines significant disruptions can occur, as seen in Broken Hill recently. Organisations need to consider what contingency measures can be put in place such as backup power sources with generators and batteries.
- Telecommunications vulnerabilities: Heat-related power failures can also disrupt telecom infrastructure, affecting communication and data access.
- Power outage: Recent power outages in local governments in NSW have highlighted the need for town resilience plans. Lack of EFTPOS machines, ability to pump petrol, stay cool and cook meals is all disrupted.
Social Impacts of Heatwaves and Climate Change
- Vulnerable communities: Heatwaves disproportionately affect certain groups, including low-income communities, the elderly, and those without access to proper cooling. The social fabric of communities may weaken as these groups experience higher health risks and economic challenges.
- Urban heat islands: Urban areas often experience more intense heatwaves due to higher concentrations of buildings, concrete and vehicles. Organisations in these regions may face more significant challenges, such as higher energy costs, employee absenteeism, and greater demands on local resources.
- Organisational response to social issues: Organisations have a role in supporting their communities through climate-related social initiatives, like providing cooling spaces for vulnerable populations and standing up local disaster relief efforts.
A more strategic, mature and proactive approach to preparedness
Organisations need to integrate planning for preparedness and adaptation into their organisational strategy. This planning needs to consider both the short-term impacts of climate change as well as longer-term impacts.
Short-term impacts:
- Increased costs due to rising temperatures (cooling costs, production costs, and an increased strain on healthcare facilities treating heat-related illnesses).
- Disruption to work schedules and reduced outdoor labour arising from heatwaves and storms, bushfires and floods. Inability to rapidly repair critical infrastructure.
- Ensuring that communities are aware of and understand response plans.
Long-term strategic adaptation:
- Transitioning to energy-efficient and climate-resilient infrastructure, including solar power, energy storage and ensuring climate-resilient design.
- Investment in climate-resilient supply chains through finding alternative suppliers and localising production.
- Taking steps to build climate-resilient communities.
Resilience Planning
Organisations need to integrate contingencies into their standard operations. For example:
- Contingency planning for power outages: The 2019/20 bushfires demonstrated that businesses equipped with alternate power supplies minimised their operational downtime. These contingency options ranged from solar with battery storage to on-site generators, highlighting the need for organisations to future proof their operational requirements to ensure that solutions are fit for purpose.
- Water security: Organisations and businesses should ensure they have water conservation plans and, where applicable, look into alternative water sources such as rainwater or stormwater harvesting systems.
- Telecommunications redundancy: Having alternative communication methods, such as satellite phones or internet redundancy solutions, can mitigate the impact of telecom disruptions.
Contingency Planning for the Future – steps to take
We recommend that organisations develop a socially conscious business continuity plan that balances operational and social factors. This includes a sustainable workforce strategy that supports employees’ health and wellbeing during extreme weather events. Key actions for organisations are to engage employees in sustainability and resilience planning.
Broadly speaking, organisations should take the following steps:
- Identify vulnerabilities resulting from heatwaves or storms (water, power, communications) and develop strategies to overcome these vulnerabilities.
- Identify whole of community impacts and strategies to incorporate support to communities during extreme events that ensure effective community engagement.
- Ensure sufficient resourcing levels to implement program responses and ensure sufficient expertise and robust data is informing adaptation planning and implementation.
- Establish contingency measures for critical operations, including crisis communications protocols
- Educate staff on response protocols and ensure staff are prepared for anticipated events
- Regularly review and exercise plans through simulations and heatwave/storm scenarios to ensure sufficient preparation.
Putting these ideas into practice
To be ready for extreme weather events, organisations need to take steps to prepare to not only secure their operations but also support societal resilience during extreme weather events. This involves a focus on building resilience into business-as-usual strategies while considering both operational and social factors with proactive planning for both short-term and long-term climate challenges.
Join us for our Resilience webinar series from OCM and Risk-e Business in 2025
We are starting 2025 with a webinar designed to help you assess your climate risk and resilience readiness. Learn practical steps you can take to build resilience through organisational transformation and adaptation strategies.
Resources
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report: Climate Change, 2023 https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/
JLT, JLT Public Sector Risk Report, 2024
NSW Government, Get Ready NSW, https://www.nsw.gov.au/emergency/get-ready
NSW Government, NSW Bushfire Inquiry 2020 https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-agencies/premiers-department/access-to-information/nsw-bushfire-inquiry
Queensland Audit Office, Financial Audit Report: Local government 2023
Report 8: 2023–24, 29 January 2024
Resilient Cities Network Urban Pulse: Identifying Resilience Solutions at the Intersection of Climate, Health and Equity, Sept 2024, https://resilientcitiesnetwork.org/urban-pulse-resilience-solutions-intersection-climate-health-equity/
Rockefeller Foundation – Health https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/our-work/health/
World Health Organisation – Heatwaves https://www.who.int/health-topics/heatwaves#tab=tab_1 and Floods https://www.who.int/health-topics/floods#tab=tab_1
