PROPERTY owners and residents of Kingston are being urged to prepare for climate change.
The recently-launched Climate Ready website explains how global warming is caused by people “adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere more quickly than in the past” and provides details on how to create a “climate ready action plan”.
The website is the result on a partnership between the peninsula, Bayside and Kingston councils and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).
Climate Ready – a website designed to help you better understand how to adapt to the likely impacts and risks of climate change is now available.
“Greenhouse gases have always played a part in Earth’s natural temperature regulation, but this ever growing human activity is putting more pressure on the natural system than it can accommodate,” the website states in its explanation for global warming.
Kingston mayor Cr Tamsin Bearsley said Kingston Council believed the Climate Ready project “will be a useful tool in helping council engage with the broader community and motivate them to create their own interactive, personalised action plans to prepare for the impacts of climate change”.
“My family and I have completed a Climate Ready plan and realise just how many actions we have yet to complete. We are committed to actively working our way through our plan to ensure our home and family are climate ready.”
Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Cr Graham Pittock said Climate Ready “provides an online solution for residents to understand their climate change risks and start preparing for the future”.
Cr Pittock, Cr Hugh Fraser and the shire’s then renewable resources team leader Jessica Wingad attended last year’s United Nations’ climate change conference in Paris.
Since their return the shire has announced a five-year plan to become “carbon neutral” as well as accepting an invitation to commit to an international Compact of mayors to minimise climate change.
“Climate Ready provides a one-stop-shop website with easy access to information on preparing for heatwaves, bushfire, drought, flooding and severe storms,” Cr Pittock said in describing the new website.
“Through gaining a better understanding of climate change risks and having an action plan we are much less likely to suffer during events such as heatwave, bushfire or flash flooding,” he said.
The action plan is described as being “a step-wise tool that describes the choices available, depending on which climate change risks are most likely to have an effect where you live”.
“Climate Ready, with its action plans and associated community engagement program, will be an invaluable tool for our community to prepare for the risks climate change is likely to bring,” Cr Pittock said.
The Climate Ready plan is at www.climateready.com.au and free consultations are available at the Eco Living Display Centre, The Briars, Mt Martha.
Community workshops on preparing for climate change will be held 6-7pm Thursday 14 April at Seawinds Community Hub, 11a Allambi Av, West Rosebud and 10.30-11.30am Friday 15 April, Hastings Community Hub, 1973 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Hastings.
Bookings: climateready.com.au/workshops
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 9 March 2016