Climate Change

Overview

Climate change is often described as the change in the average weather over a long period of time, usually over a period of 30 years and can occur due to a combination of natural and human causes. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change describes climate change as …a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.

The majority of natural assets within the Corangamite region will be impacted by climate change. The region’s native vegetation, waterways, wetlands and soil are vulnerable to a hotter, drier climate. The region’s estuaries and coastal wetlands are vulnerable to sea level rise. It is expected that climate change will impact the region’s native vegetation through modifications to vegetation communities, such as loss of particular plant species and changes to community structure, as a result of higher temperature and lower rainfall, changes to natural fire and flooding regimes and climatic conditions favouring new and established weed species.

Dry, cracking mud
Wind turbine