Climate Action
SDG 13

The University manages local education programs and organises events for local education on climate-related issues. In 2024, some relevant examples include:

• The Curious Climate Schools is a University of Tasmania program that connects school students aged 10-18 with trusted climate experts, and provides climate education resources to schools in Tasmania. Commencing in 2020, Curious Climate Schools is an ongoing program aiming to deliver public-powered scientific engagement, bridging the gap between experts and children with credible, relevant information about climate change. Each student question is answered in video or webpage format by the panel of experts, and those answers are uploaded to the Curious Climate Schools website, where they can be explored by students and their teachers, as well as the wider public. The Curious Climate program was named winner of the Benefitting Society category at the 2022 Green Gown Awards Australasia, which recognise outstanding sustainability initiatives in universities and colleges.
• 'Can We Survive on a Hotter Planet?' (2024). This session focused on preparing for inevitable warming. The discussion was led by Clive Hamilton, a celebrated figure in Australian academia, together with a panel of University of Tasmania experts.
• 'Living Well with Climate Change, A conversation for the Huon Community' (2024). A community conversation on how practices like mindfulness, yoga, and spending time in nature can support individuals and community to manage challenges like bushfires, floods, and other climate change challenges.

To meet our commitment to climate action, Race to Zero and carbon neutral certification, the University has developed a comprehensive and ambitious Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Strategic Plan 2022-2030, which sets out how the University will accelerate and broaden climate action to address carbon emissions from all three emission scopes. Our efforts are guided by the 1.5°C Paris Target (IPCC pathway) that requires a global net anthropogenic GHG reduction of 45% by 2030 and reaching net zero before 2050.

Our objective is to deliver an ambitious plan for climate action and set goals that are ahead of current global standards so that we are a model for how to transition our society and economy to a low to zero carbon basis. Thus, our Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Strategic Plan will reduce gross emissions by at least 50% by 2030 from a 2015 baseline year. It includes 42 measurable actions by emission source (covering scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions) with clear KPIs/targets, deadlines, indicative cost of implementation and responsibility.

The Strategic Plan is publicly available and actively shared with other higher education institutions, government, and community groups. For example, the Plan has been shared through provision of the document and presentations on content to the Tasmanian Government-related Entities Sustainability Working Group, the City of Hobart Climate team, and community groups such as Sustainable Living Tasmania, Tasmanian Climate Collective, Net Zero Channel Inc (NZC).

The University has partnered with state and local governments to plan for climate change disasters in various ways. In 2024, relevant examples include:

• The Practical and Sustainable Pathways to Community Coexistence with Bushfires Project (2023-2028) aims to develop adaptation pathways so Australian communities can co-exist safely and sustainably with intrinsically flammable landscapes. In collaboration with local, regional and national governments, state Department of Police, Fire & Emergency Management, Aboriginal communities contributing traditional knowledge, and world-leading fire scientists, this project is expected to provide insights into the drivers of fire disaster, concrete outcomes such as optimal preventive and mitigation plans, and greatly improved community understanding and involvement.
• The Tasmanian Bushfire Preparedness Survey Project (2023-2024) is designed to give an up-to-date and representative snapshot of the bushfire planning and preparedness of residents of bushfire-prone suburbs in every Tasmanian local government area, providing legacy baseline data for evaluation of new community preparedness and resilience plans and campaigns and evidence-based pathways for engaging with residents to improve bushfire preparedness.
• The Sparking Conversations, Igniting Action Project (2022-2024) is a joint initiative with various local governments to provide communities with the support they need to better prepare for and build resilience to bushfire. The Fire Centre will be evaluating the community engagement of the SCIA project, and contributing to the assessment of flammability of garden plants.
• The University's Disaster Resilience Research Group works with government and industry to collectively strengthen society's resilience to disasters, recognising the need to promote cooperation between research entities and those involved in emergency management to develop new products that enhance disaster resilience. The Group's research focuses on co-operative disaster planning and resilience, including climate change disasters, both locally in Tasmania, nationally in Australia and internationally. This often includes community displacement. For example:
  • Improving decision-making and trust-building in disaster management teams: In collaboration with various government emergency services that provide search, rescue, and humanitarian aid to displaced people, this project aims to foster trust among disaster management stakeholders during both planning and response phases, supporting the co-operative efforts needed to address climate-related disasters. Supported by the University of Tasmania and Natural Hazards Research Australia (NHRA),
  • Post Flood 2022/23: A Collaborative and coordinated flood research program across multiple jurisdictions (2023-2024). This project seeks to learn firsthand from people who were impacted by the 2022 floods in northern Tasmania and apply their lessons to future flood preparedness. The important first-hand experiences gathered for this research will provide an in-depth understanding of the communities lived experiences  before, during and following the significant flood events in 2022. This data will be a valuable source of accurate information to help agencies and stakeholders understand and learn from these floods.

The University often informs and supports local and state government in climate change disaster or risk early warning and monitoring. In 2024, some relevant examples include:

• The 'Drought-ready communities: A pilot project for regional drought planning preparedness' project (2024) conducted a community-based resilience-building exercise in NW Tasmania as part of the state governments 2-year Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program. This included early warning and monitoring. The pilot informed planning for regional drought preparedness. Based on learnings from the pilot, a separate phase of the activity may see the exercise replicated and rolled out in multiple communities across Tasmania to inform planning and preparedness across the state.
• The Climate Futures Research Group has developed 'A Natural Hazards Atlas for Tasmania', supported by the National Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Ready Fund. The tool was launched in 2024, a critical first step in developing a multi-layered online resource that monitors and provides detailed data on natural hazards such as bushfires, floods, and storms. The atlas aims to bridge the gap in locally relevant and accessible hazard information, for multiple sectors across all of Tasmania, which is crucial for effective planning and response to natural hazards to build disaster resilience and preparedness.

The University partners with NGOs to collaborate in climate adaptation education. In 2024, relevant examples include:

• The Tasmanian Giant Kelp Restoration project (2023-2024) is a partnership between The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resource Management South (both NGOs and not-for-profit organisations), the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania, and the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. The project aims to develop methods for large-scale restoration of Giant Kelp, which has been impacted by climate change, and bring together the knowledge, experience and capacity of a wide range of partners and stakeholders. This climate adaptation project helps ecosystems and societies adapt to future conditions by providing a wide range of ecosystem services, from habitat for commercially valuable species like lobsters, scalefish and abalone, to improving local water quality, buffering coastlines from erosion. Restoring Giant Kelp forests will also help recreational user groups, like local dive operators (healthy underwater forests are literally huge dive tourism attractions), and commercial fisheries by supporting job creation in regional coastal areas to supplement the developing urchin fishery as a current control method to allow for kelp recovery.
• The Tasmanian Youth Climate Leaders Program (2023-2024) is a collaboration between the University of Tasmania and Sustainable Living Tasmania (a local NGO and not-for-profit organisation), within the Education for Sustainability Tasmania network (a UN-recognised Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development). The program was supported by the Tasmanian Government through Renewables, Climate and Future Industries Tasmania. It offers students (aged 10-18 years) the opportunity to understand the ways in which their actions can contribute towards the global effort to address climate change and sustainability, including climate adaptation. The program provides mentorship to students as they learn about climate change and implement a climate action project in their organisation or local community during the year. The goal of this program is to ignite the passion of youth, and equip them with skills to lead on-ground climate actions into the future.