Climate Change

Climate change – poses both challenges and opportunities for Australia’s wild fisheries and aquaculture sectors. FRDC has been participating in the development of an effective strategic framework to enhance each sector’s adaptive capacity, mitigate against, and take advantage of further climate change. This builds on the vast bank of research undertaken over the past decade looking at climate variability and its impact on the fishing industry. FRDC will participate with the other Rural Research and Development Corporations (RDCs) in the collaborative research initiative Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries (CCRSPI), to examine and respond to (positive and negative) impacts of climate change on primary industries.

The need for the Fisheries Climate Change Action Plan was identified as part of the National Climate Change Adaptation Framework that was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments in 2007. The framework recognises that Australian commercial, indigenous and recreational fisheries will be affected by climate change through: increasing ocean temperatures, changes to ocean currents, wind and nutrients, changed rainfall patterns, and ocean acidification.

FRDC has a role at the national level to co-ordinate fisheries climate change R&D with Australian, State and Territory Government agencies, industry, and stakeholders.

The Department of Climate Change was established on 3 December 2007 and is the lead Federal agency on Climate issues. On 8 March 2010 the Department of Climate Change was restructured to include Energy Efficiency.

National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility - NCARF

NCARF is leading the research community in a national interdisciplinary effort to generate the information needed by decision-makers in government and in vulnerable sectors and communities to manage the risks of climate change impacts.

National Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries - CCRSPI

Recognising that changes to Australia’s already variable climate will present great opportunities and challenges for the nation’s primary industries, a collaborative partnership - the National Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries (CCRSPI) - was established in 2007.

CCRSPI operates under a mandate from the Primary Industry Ministerial Council and Primary Industry Standing Committee. CCRSPI partners are the primary industries State agencies, the Rural Research and Development Corporations, the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the CSIRO. CCRSPI is overseen by a Steering Committee whose membership is comprised of representatives drawn from the partnership.

Through intensive consultation and analysis, the strategy identifies the major needs for national collaborative research, the existing areas of research activity, and the major gaps in our knowledge. From this, the National Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries has set a course for efficient, co-ordinated and collaborative research and its adoption.

More information is available from the CCRSPI website.

El nemo

El nemo is a collaborative approach to dealing with climate change relating to the marine environment and fisheries. It will bring together three regional programs that will be established to share information at a national level. These programs will implement a range of national plans and strategies including the National Climate Change Action Plan for Fisheries and Aquaculture, and the National Adaptation Research Plan for Marine Biodiversity and Resources.

The El Nemo program will run over 4 years and answer climate-change-related questions in a bid to help fisheries, aquaculture sectors and fisheries management prepare and adapt to change.

The first program to commence is el-nemo - South East. The two programs to follow are tropical and western.