Australia develops world-first course on adapting to climate change for electricity companies

Adaptation to the changing climate is becoming more pressing for electricity transmission and distribution companies due to increased frequency and severity of windstorms, heatwaves and floods.

To address these challenges, a new course titled ‘Climate Change Adaptation for Transmission and Distribution Organisations — Understanding the impact of climate change and developing an adaptation strategy for your organisation’ will be offered for the first time to Australian and Asia-Pacific companies on 25–26 June 2009 at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney.

The course has several unique features. Firstly, it is focused on the business impacts of weather and climate change impacts, rather than the science. The course is focused around identifying practical, justifiable and evidence-based adaptation measures that advance the organisation’s corporate objectives. The course identifies the key business practices and processes that are most affected by climate change, which include asset management and design, corporate strategy, risk management, environmental management, and health and safety.

Secondly, a key course objective is to produce an outline of a climate change adaptation plan for the participant's organisation.

Thirdly, the course is aimed specifically at the electricity transmission and distribution sector, which faces unique adaptation issues due to supply constraints.

The course was developed with support from Australian associations, Energy Networks Australia and Engineers Australia and with funding from the Department of Climate Change.

The course was written by Athol Yates, Australian Security Research Centre, and Professor Priyan Mendis, University of Melbourne.