The Climate Justice Alliance, facilitated by Jesuit Social Services’ Centre for Just Places, has released a new temperature projection resource to support communities across the Northern Territory to understand the scale of future heat risk. Drawing on data from the Climate Council of Australia, the resource maps projected temperature increases for 2050 and 2090 across 72 Territory communities under three Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scenarios: taking no action, continuing the current trajectory, or taking the necessary steps to mitigate the climate crisis.
The projections highlight an urgent need for equitable climate action and highlight the compounding pressures of rising temperatures, increasing humidity, and existing socioeconomic vulnerability factors that together intensify risks to community health and wellbeing.
The findings point to profound implications for the Territory’s future. Extreme heat and humidity projections (already reflected in recent Central Australian heat records) signal severe risks for communities, particularly those in remote areas facing energy poverty and water insecurity.
These insights reinforce the need for a Climate Change Act, renewed commitments to net zero and renewable energy targets, and strengthened investment in place-based, community-led adaptation to protect the health and wellbeing of all people and places across the Northern Territory.
