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Sea Change: co-developing pathways to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate for fisheries and aquaculture in Australia

Project number: 2023-011
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $1,628,586.00
Principal Investigator: Gretta T. Pecl
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 31 Oct 2023 - 30 Apr 2027
:

Need

There is a need to increase effective engagement between fishing and aquaculture stakeholders and climate science and scientists in an ongoing strategic way, and not ‘just’ for single-project outcomes.

Improved engagement will help increase understanding of the likely implications of a changing climate in relevant contexts, and lay foundations for a shared exploration of available options for reducing risk exposure. We have worked with stakeholders and the FRDC Extension Officer Network to design a strategy that will engage fishing and aquaculture stakeholders on existing knowledge regarding risks and opportunities associated with a changing climate, to enable resource managers and researchers to better understand the ways in which many sectors are already adapting autonomously and to identify the barriers to further adaptation, and to co-design solutions that are relevant at local- and industry-levels to help build climate-ready communities and to stimulate economic resilience.

In many cases (but not all), extensive information regarding marine climate change - including key risks to fisheries and aquaculture producers (at a high level) - is already available, along with information on how to develop adaptation plans. However, despite this, progress and uptake within most sectors in terms of planned adaptation responses has been very slow – although many individual operators are already making ‘autonomous’ changes to their day-to-day operations in response to climate change drivers. If these changes are being made without access to best available knowledge, then it is very likely that substantial portions of these responses are maladaptive in the longer term, or may be countervailing to planned government adaptations (see Pecl et al 2019, Ambio, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-019-01186-x). This is a pattern evident within many different industries around Australia and across the rest of the world. ‘What’ needs to happen has thus been outlined in general terms in many cases, but such information is not co-developed or provided in consultation with end-users in ways that resonate or are useful to them. This project will address this need for relevance and usefulness.

The project aims to develop reflexive, ongoing, and two-way knowledge exchange between industry representatives, operators and manager, and the marine climate change impacts and adaptation research sector, so that solutions are co-designed, usable, and adoptable.

Objectives

1. Work with seafood industry leaders to establish two-way climate conversations that can strengthen and underpin Australian fishing and aquaculture’s resilience to a changing climate. This approach will facilitate co-design of pathways to increase agility and build capacity for climate change adaptation with a select number of fisheries and aquaculture operations. This process will also create a model that can be applicable to other RDC’s.
2. Create a climate conversations platform to facilitate knowledge exchange (including identifying ‘gaps’ and shared issues), and thus capture, disseminate, and showcase:a. How fishing and aquaculture sectors are already adapting and responding to recent changesb. What has facilitated these changes made, and what the barriers are to further adaptationc. The story of fishing and aquaculture’s efforts towards achieving climate resilience - using a dynamic ‘story map’ approach, and other multi-media, communicate progress to target audiences.
3. Identify a) key factors influencing the agility of fisheries and aquaculture to adapt to climate change, and b) which factors (e.g. opportunities) are most important for adaptation capacity-building for different types of operations - building on work underway across multiple domestic and international projects and working groups.
4. Co-develop pathways, with a select number of fisheries and aquaculture operations, to increase their agility and build sector capacity for climate change adaptation and resilience.
5. Support the development of communities of practice for groups of fisheries and/or aquaculture operations that have similar opportunities and pathways – to support increased agility and capacity building for climate change adaptation (determined in objective 3).

Climate resilient wild catch fisheries

Project number: 2021-089
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $292,985.00
Principal Investigator: Veronica Papacosta
Organisation: Seafood Industry Australia (SIA)
Project start/end date: 30 Jan 2022 - 29 Sep 2022
:

Need

The need for this project is to activate and engage industry in viable options towards climate resilience by 2030. This includes the need to demonstrate that immediate options exist and are viable and meaningful, while also gaining support for a clear plan to transform the industry and supply chain with support both internally and beyond the sector. The key needs are:

01 | Industry awareness of the problems and solutions around climate change and resilience is below where it needs to be to activate broad transformation. There is little action towards climate resilience (1 player) in comparison to other agricultural sectors.

02 | There will be increasing competition within the protein market to validate and promote sustainable practices and positive contributions to the environment/climate.

03 | Leaders and innovators in the industry are attempting to act in isolation with few resources to support industry and supply chain coordination and acceleration.

04 | Change around the edges that can be achieved by some stakeholders operating alone will not deliver the transformation at a scale or pace that is required to meet growing and broadly felt consumer expectations that indicate demonstrable action on climate change.

05 | There is a surplus of tools, resources and research around climate change and resilience, but to this point, little of that work has been translated into forms fishers find usable and valuable.

06 | There is a need to identify early adopters and innovators in the space to lead new ways operating into the future.

07 | There is an FRDC funded project to undertake a Lifecycle Assessment being concluded early November. This work has been preliminarily identified fuel, transport, and refrigeration as key challenges requiring new solutions/opportunities for industry.

08 | Propulsion and fuel have been identified as key challenges in wild catch fisheries achieving climate resilience and reducing carbon emissions, and will be the focus of this project.

Objectives

1. To understand challenges facing the commercial wild-harvest sector relating to a changing climate
2. To determine opportunities to respond to those challenges, and validate solutions
3. To engage with industry leaders and innovators to explore and validate viable, feasible and scalable options towards climate resilience
4. To demonstrate rapid and practical progress towards climate resilience and elements of SIA’s Our Pledge
5. To build partnerships and relationships with global leaders to enable advancement of prioritised solutions that will enable improved climate resilience

Final report

Authors: Veronica Papacosta Clayton Nelson Tom Cosentino Allen Haroutonian Angus McDonald
Final Report • 2023-12-12 • 8.11 MB
2021-089-DLD.pdf

Summary

This report outlines the impending need for the fishing industry to reduce GHG emissions by 2030. Over 8 months, the project evaluated alternative fuels' potential to cut emissions, recognising challenges in regulatory stimulus and incomplete research. Among numerous options, certain solutions emerged, while others like ammonia and liquid hydrogen faced constraints. The analysis prioritised solutions based on maturity and industry suitability. Economic assessments underscored the significance of fuel prices in shaping viability. The report introduces the "energy transition paradox," emphasising incremental positive steps toward change. Scenarios and roadmaps were crafted, identifying renewable diesel and battery/electric outboards as short-term solutions, while green methanol and emissions capture show promise for the medium term.
Environment

Attendance and participation at the Governing Changing Oceans Workshop and PICES-5th International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Ocean - Bergen Norway

Project number: 2022-181
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $15,000.00
Principal Investigator: Andrew Sullivan
Organisation: Fish Focus Consulting
Project start/end date: 23 Mar 2023 - 18 May 2023
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Need

Workshop: The workshop is being hosted Tiffany Morrison, Pip Cohen, Gretta Pecl and Emily Ogier. Their approach is to bring together a small group of exceptional multi-disciplinary researchers and practitioners with expertise in governance, fisheries, climate science, blue carbon, blue finance, blue conservation, Indigenous governance, co-management, and community resilience. It is our aim that discussions will be focused towards producing a jointly authored paper targeted at Nature or Science, complemented by a marine intervention governance protocol and self-assessment tool.

Similarly the ECCWO5 symposium will bring together experts from around the world to better understand climate impacts on ocean ecosystems, the ecosystem services they provide, and the people, businesses and communities that depend on them. The 2023 event will highlight the latest information on how oceans are changing, what is at risk, responses that are underway, and strategies for increasing climate resilience, mitigation and adaptation. It aims to identify key knowledge gaps, promote collaborations, and stimulate the next generation of science and actions.

Environment

Agri-Climate Outlooks

Project number: 2022-059
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $117,700.00
Principal Investigator: Ben Baghurst
Organisation: Agricultural Innovation Australia Ltd (AIA)
Project start/end date: 14 Aug 2022 - 30 Dec 2022
:

Need

Commercial in confidence. To know more about this project please contact FRDC.

Objectives

Commercial in confidence
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