Climate change engagement and communications practice review (phase 1) | Natural Hazards Research Australia

Climate change engagement and communications practice review (phase 1)

Research theme

Resilient communities

Project type

Commissioned research

Project status

Completed

This project aims to establish effective climate change and bushfire risk engagement practice and delivery based on:

  • linking impacts to the values communities care about
  • a desktop review of best practice approaches to climate change engagement and communication that aims to improve community understanding and encourage behaviour change for risk reduction and resilience
  • consultation and facilitation of two workshops with key stakeholders to explore the issues identified in the review
  • identification and review of national and international practices to identify the skills, knowledge and capabilities that are useful to support effective community engagement about climate issues.
Project details

The 2019-20 fire season in Australia highlighted the impact of climate change. The role that community engagement and communications play in supporting planning, preparedness, response and resilience is an increasingly important management lever in the fire sector’s risk reduction toolkit. It is also important to differentiate between engagement and communications practices given these two methods can be very different and can serve different purposes.

The objectives of this project are therefore to:

  • undertake a literature review of the known impacts of climate change on bushfire risk in Victoria, linking impacts to the values that communities care about
  • document best-practice approaches to climate change engagement and communication
  • identify and document the skills, knowledge and capabilities that are useful in supporting this engagement
  • identify and document existing Victorian and/or Federal legislation, strategies, actions and programs that support and drive effective engagement practice.