Climate Change Risk Management service

Climate change impacts all Victorians. For this reason, it’s important that Victorian public sector organisations consider the risk it brings to them and the communities they serve, writes the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA).

Climate change impacts all Victorians. For this reason, it’s important that Victorian public sector organisations consider the risk it brings to them and the communities they serve.

Victoria’s climate has changed in recent decades, becoming warmer and drier. Change that is expected to continue. Understanding what Victoria’s climate may be like in the future, has never been more important. It’s why public sector organisations that consider climate change in their decision-making will be better prepared to respond to its impacts.

Resources

Recognising the challenge that climate change brings, VMIA, as the Victorian Government’s insurer and risk adviser, developed three resources specifically for addressing climate change risks.

Climate Change Risk Management Guides

While climate change may seem overwhelming, the core ideas are quite simple.

The first guide—Understanding Victorian climate change risk management expectations—highlights the minimum requirements for managing climate change risks. It provides essential information and where further detail can be sourced.

Our next guide—Using risk management to help you address climate change—explains how organisations can apply their existing risk management framework to analyse climate change risks. This better equips them to consider and address climate change impacts, address government expectations, and make more informed decisions.

The third and final guide—Exploring Victoria’s climate change risks—looks more closely at the range of impacts climate change can have on Victorian organisations, communities and the natural environment.

By acting on these foreseeable risks, public sector organisations can set their business priorities and allocate resources to ensure they continue to deliver on their organisation’s role and purpose. In doing this, they can contribute to a more resilient Victoria, and to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Online training and tools on climate change

While Victoria’s climate is changing, uncertainty remains about the nature, timing and velocity of specific events and their impact.

Public sector organisations that spend time considering how climate change may impact their activities, functions and strategies are putting risk management into practice.

To assist with this, we partnered with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action to launch a climate change risk management program, including an online workshop and tools. Details about the workshop and the tools can be accessed from the VMIA website.

The workshop is for risk and governance professionals who want to ensure climate change is a mainstream part of their risk management approach, and environment specialists who may can view climate change from an enterprise risk perspective.

The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of IPAA Victoria.