Adaptive and Resilient Communities (ARC) Program

The launch of the Local Government Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit is a world-first in adaptive responses to climate change. Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle launched the Toolkit at the 'Adaptation to Climate Change Forum' organised by ICLEI Oceania and hosted by the City of Melbourne on Wednesday 4 March.

Watch the Lord Mayor's speech.

View photographs from the launch and forum.

'I'm delighted to launch the Adaptation Toolkit,' said the Lord Mayor. '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. 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 different regions in Australia.

'[The Toolkit] is accessible – it's freely available from ICLEI Oceania's website as a download. And this is one of the reasons we're so delighted to host this forum today – it's a great result of partnerships of a number of players coming together to deliver a resource which is then useful and can be carried throughout the rest of our activities in our own particular local government areas. Congratulations ICLEI on developing and designing this Toolkit.'

Download the Toolkit from the Local Government Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit webpage.

'Climate change is our new reality'

The Lord Mayor also spoke about the challenges of climate change facing us today and the need to act, 'We have got higher average temperatures, we have got reduced rainfall, we've got more frequent extreme weather events – and I'm not just talking about the events of the last three weeks,' he said.

'Our drinking water levels are the lowest they've ever been. We're breaking lots of records, every year. And year by year they are the wrong ones. Climate change is our new reality.

'Today we are joining ICLEI Oceania in launching a new approach to local government adaptation planning.'

New adaptation program for local government

Wayne Wescott, ICLEI Oceania CEO, then announced the roll out of ICLEI Oceania’s new 'Adaptive and Resilient Cities and Communities' program for Australian local governments.

Watch Wayne Wescott's speech.

Building on over a decade of driving the largest greenhouse gas mitigation program in the world through the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) program – involving 238 councils Australia-wide – ICLEI Oceania’s new adaptation program will build on CCP’s mitigation success and provide local governments with tools and support to respond to climate change impacts.

Adaptation is not just about the risks to be endured due to climate variability. Council decision-making processes need to support and strengthen the capacity of staff to identify inherent opportunities that arise from change, as well as the risks.