Securing Australia’s Future: Full Roundtable Synthesis

Future Earth Australia at the Australian Academy of Science is leading a process to consolidate and extend a broader agenda of proactive and productive reform of climate adaptation, alongside accepting the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. After the devastating bushfires, droughts, floods and hailstorms of the past year, an evidencebased policy response is needed to secure Australia’s future in the face of the range of emerging threats posed by environmental change.

To this end, we welcome the Prime Minister’s comments earlier in 2020 on the need to focus on resilience and adaptation for all Australians—and argue it must be done in a substantive, inclusive, community-based manner. Adaptation and resilience must be framed with respect to enabling a just transition for all Australians. Future Earth Australia recently consulted with a range of sectors across Australia through a series of online roundtables to help frame a National Adaptation Summit planned for early 2021.

This document contains a full synthesis of the discussions held during these online roundtables.