Confronting the Inconvenient Truth: The Politics and Policies of Australian Climate Change Adaptation Planning

Abstract

Climate change adaptation policy development has been taking place for almost a decade, but thorough analysis of adaptation policy across Australia is yet to be achieved. This thesis explains variation in the identification of vulnerability in Australian climate change adaptation plans (CCAPs). It asks: how can we explain the variation in the prioritisation of socio-political concerns in CCAPs developed by local governments across Australia? The research shows that a general indistinct remit within local government contributes to a variety of problem definitions regarding climate change across councils that result in variation in identification and prioritisation of socio-political concerns. The thesis also engages with the question of ‘adaptation as transformation’ and concludes that transformation has not yet occurred in the Australian adaptation context. This thesis lays out the findings of a personally collated database of 97 climate change adaptation plans (CCAPs) from across Australia. CCAPs are categorised as either biophysical impacts-based or socio-political inclusive. Surveys and interviews were conducted to examine this variation, with specific attention paid to the inclusion of vulnerable groups and mental health in adaptation planning. Variation in the inclusion of and approaches to education and community consultation (key determinants of adaptive capacity) was also examined. The research is located at the intersection of the vulnerability literature, public policy, and the politics of climate change adaptation planning. As well as categorising Australian CCAPs as ‘transitional’ rather than ‘transformational’ adaptation, the research contributes a new theory – ‘the politicisation of vulnerability’ to the vulnerability literature, provides a new Australia-wide case study for the public policy literature, and offers a unique database of Australian local government CCAPs.