Jesuit Social Services welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Climate Adaptation Plan in Australia – National Adaptation Plan Issues Paper, led by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
We strongly support the need to establish a long-term Climate Adaptation Plan to support all Australians, particularly our most affected communities in responding to climate change impacts. A Climate Adaptation Plan, developed through place-based and community-led approaches, must be undertaken concurrently with action to directly address climate change.
In our response, we discuss the need for the Climate Adaptation Plan to have a proactive approach to climate adaptation. Developed through a social justice lens, a more adapted Australia needs to be built through a ‘just adaptation’ model in order to effectively address the inequities and injustices unevenly impacting adaptive capacity for people and places.
We highlight the integral role of the community sector in supporting communities in disproportionately vulnerable situations. They have a strong understanding of the local needs, drivers of risk, and vulnerabilities for communities. Furthermore, community service organisations themselves are also vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, creating further risk in their ability to provide essential services and programs.
Importantly, we also discuss the disproportionate impacts of climate change on First Nations peoples, but also their resilience to climate change, and their knowledge of ecological justice and climate adaptation.
