Projects

Becoming Climate Ready

Our flagship course, Becoming Climate Ready: Climate Risk Management for Local Government, is successfully equipping local council leaders across Australia with the tools to identify, manage, and mitigate climate risks, while also capitalising on the opportunities that arise from a changing climate. This 8-module course, was developed in 2023 and delivered online in 2024 with three cohorts. It integrates real-world case studies, practical tools, templates, and two capability-building workshops. It is specifically designed to develop practical skills in climate risk management and support local council governments as they transition to a net-zero economy.

Climate-resilient landscapes project: empowering local governments for climate risk monitoring

The climate-resilient landscapes project, led by Professor Brendan Mackey (Griffith University), Oliver Costello (Jagan Alliance Aboriginal Corporation) and Associate Professor Diane Jarvis (James Cook University), targets the Northern Rivers region of NSW and the Wet Tropics of Queensland, helping communities and local governments respond to escalating climate risks. By working with local groups and agencies from 2023 to 2026, the project delivers high-resolution climate risk data, practical adaptation planning tools, and targeted workshops. These resources enable local and regional governments and communities to strengthen early warning systems and monitoring for climate-related disasters, ensuring adaptation strategies are informed by local and Traditional Knowledge and remain responsive to changing conditions.

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Ethos project: advancing heat-health early warning for older Australians

The Ethos Project at Griffith University, led by Associate Professor Shannon Rutherford and running from 2022 to 2025, is a pioneering initiative that protects older Australians from extreme heat risks by developing and trialling an individualised, in-home heat-health early warning system. By integrating environmental science, thermophysiology, public health, and digital technology, the project equips older people with practical tool and data for monitoring indoor heat and encourages them to be prepared and act timely. Extensive community engagement and knowledge sharing - including symposiums, focus groups, and educational resources - ensure that the system is co-designed with older people, carers, and policymakers, supporting effective local responses and adaptation planning for climate-related health risks.

Ecosystem-based adaptation: empowering Indigenous women for climate resilience

Running from 2023 to 2025, this research project led by Dr Simone Maynard and teams from Universitas Andalas and Griffith University brings together Indigenous women’s traditional ecological knowledge and western science to identify ecosystem-based adaptation strategies in Aceh, West Sumatera (Indonesia), and Queensland (Australia). By focusing on ecosystem services and knowledge sharing, the project provides policymakers, community leaders, and local governments with insights to develop more effective and equitable climate change adaptation policies. The outcomes inform early warning and monitoring systems for climate risks, strengthening community resilience and ensuring adaptation approaches are locally relevant and socially just.

Understanding Australians’ climate emotions to support Reef risk monitoring and policy

Running from 2023–2025, the project Australians, Climate Action and the Great Barrier Reef, led by Dr Karlien Paas, Dr Lucy Bird and Associate Professor Kerrie Foxwell-Norton, was delivered to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (Reef Authority) to inform climate risk monitoring and policy development. In collaboration with CSIRO, James Cook University and the Reef Authority’s social science and communications teams, the project embedded Reef-specific questions into the National Climate Action Survey—Australia’s first representative national survey exploring public knowledge, emotions and attitudes toward the Reef and climate change. With a sample of around 4,000 Australians annually, the research revealed how people across regions, including those in the Reef catchment, perceive and emotionally respond to climate-related threats like mass coral bleaching. The findings—highlighting gaps in public understanding, regional differences in emotional engagement, and support for conservation over extractive industries—are directly informing the Reef Authority’s decision-making and are being used by other government bodies including the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and Queensland’s Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI). By providing robust, comparative data and person-centred insights, the project strengthens the government’s capacity to monitor climate risk, understand public sentiment, and design more targeted, adaptive responses to protect the Reef.

Smarter crisis communication for enhancing local climate-related risk messaging

The Crisis Communication and Tourist Well-being project, led by Dr Yawei Jiang in 2024 and 2025, explored how the online climate-related risk messages used by authorities and destination managers during emergencies—such as storms, floods or bushfires—shapes public perception, emotion and behaviour. Using controlled simulations, eye-tracking and galvanic skin response, the research compared abstract versus concrete messaging and found that concrete message that provides specific, detailed, and actionable guidance was more effective in capturing attention, reducing anxiety and prompting protective action—especially among disengaged or distant audiences. By assessing the emotional and physiological responses of tourists and analysing the moderation roles of public engagement and psychological distance, the project delivers evidence-based guidance for crisis message design. These insights directly support local governments and agencies in climate change disaster and risk monitoring by helping them understand how people respond in real time, tailor communications to diverse communities, and embed resilience into local emergency response systems.