Key Points:
As international port experience reveals, there are
opportunities in acting ahead of regulation and virtues in
anticipating climate change regulation
A recent report produced for the Commonwealth Government,
"The Role of Regulation in Facilitating or Constraining
Adaptation to Climate Change for Australian Infrastructure",
sets out some of the possible impacts of climate change on
Australian ports. After a brief summary of the climate change
problem and the Commonwealth's report, this article outlines
the advantages for ports in taking early action to address the
climate problem and gives consideration to a port carbon
accreditation program.
Climate change
While there is no international consensus on what levels of
climate change might be defined as "dangerous", there is
widespread support for containing the rise in global temperature to
2°C above pre-industrial levels. But even with temperature
rises of less than 2°C, impacts can be significant,
