As part of your GED obligations, risks of harm are to be minimised by implementing and maintaining appropriate risk controls. Controls should be monitored for effectiveness and continually improved.
Our risk management process includes a hierarchy of controls. Options for controlling risk are prioritised from the highest level of effectiveness to the lowest.
The risk control measures needed to meet your GED obligations depends on your specific circumstances. It is your responsibility to understand:
- your risks to human health and the environment from pollution and waste
- the right approach to minimise the risks, so far as reasonably practicable.
The risk control measures selected should seek to eliminate or otherwise reduce, so far as reasonably practicable, the overall risk of harm.
Some actions to reduce physical climate risks may also have other benefits like:
- installing renewable energy as backup power, reducing your GHG emissions
- investing in nature-based solutions to help provide flood and storm protection. This can also protect, manage or restore ecosystems.
The hierarchy of controls include:
- elimination: such as avoiding locating new developments in high-risk areas
- substitution: like replacing chemicals prone to thermal reactions with safer alternatives
- engineering controls: such as installing early warning systems including automatic alarms
- administrative controls: include emergency management plans, staff training and personal protective equipment.
Responding to physical climate risk doesn’t always mean major projects or investment. In many instances, greater accountability, planning and preparedness will help you address risks. By considering climate change in the activity design, it will likely save you money, in the long run.
Controls can often address several physical climate risks at once. Extreme weather events can cause power outages. Installing backup power can help keep critical infrastructure and control equipment operating.
Good examples of controls and measures are:
- design plant and infrastructure using the best available climate science. This is particularly relevant for new or upgraded developments
- maintain a system to manage assets. This can help assess existing assets for physical climate risks. It can help prioritise asset renewal, upgrades or replacement. Consider the best available climate science
- install and respond to early warning systems and automatic alarms
- install and inspect secondary containment infrastructure such as bunding
- inspect and maintain site and plant equipment on a regular basis
- update emergency management and incident management plans (as needed)
- train staff and build knowledge around climate hazards and response.
Examples of climate hazards, potential risks and common controls
This section provides a non-exhaustive list of examples. It includes climate hazards, potential risks and common controls. Consider your physical climate risks in selecting appropriate controls.
Prioritising controls
It is important to consider when you should implement risk controls.
If you are developing a new facility, infrastructure or asset, you should consider climate change in the design phase. It is recommended to integrate climate change scenarios into the design. This will help assess potential risks that may need more controls. It will allow the most effective controls to be considered first. This also applies to upgrades.
Risks rated high or extreme in your assessment may need immediate action. This might be due to the immediacy of the risk or the degree of harm that could occur.
Sometimes the timing of the impact is uncertain, or the most effective control is not possible in the short-term. In these situations, an adaptation pathway approach can be used. This approach supports flexibility in decision-making. It helps identify which decisions to make now and in the future. This allows some flexibility as state of knowledge changes.
An adaptation pathway approach provides a roadmap over the long-term and can be documented in an adaptation action plan. It allows implementation of a range of reasonably practicable controls over time. Controls do not need to be mutually exclusive.
Trigger points can be set to signal when decisions should be made. Triggers should be set so there is enough time for planning. This includes assessment and decisions on which control is appropriate.
This approach helps prioritise and plan investment in stages. For it to work well, there must be clear responsibilities and procedures. This includes overseeing, managing and monitoring climate risk.
A planned retreat to higher ground may be the best way to eliminate sea-level rise risk, but it’s often not practical in the short term. Using this pathway approach, you can implement other reasonably practicable controls. You could relocate critical components in the short-term while preparing for future retreat. Triggers help guide when to act. For example, rising sea levels are used in coastal hazard adaptation planning.
Some short-term actions may cause more harm, known as maladaptation. This is when actions taken to respond to climate change unintentionally increase risks for people and the environment. An adaptation pathway approach can help avoid maladaptation.
An example of this is building a seawall to mitigate short and long-term erosion. Seawalls with inadequate drainage can trap water behind nearby houses. Making the people living in them more vulnerable.
Documenting your adaptation actions
It is useful to document your adaptation actions, either in a separate or an existing plan. An adaptation action plan will generally include:
- details of each control selected and the residual risk
- roles and responsibilities
- steps for implementation of actions over time including milestones
- management triggers for action to enable flexible management over time
- required budget and resources
- a process for monitoring and evaluation of implementation
- performance measures using the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) method.
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