NEW Report released June 2025!

Navigating Climate Change

Navigating Climate Change – Scenarios for Australia’s Tertiary Education Sector offers a practical tool for tertiary education institutions to navigate the growing challenges of climate change. 

This initiative was made possible through the leadership and collaboration of 12 Australian universities committed to climate resilience and sector-wide planning. You can help make more work like this possible by donating to ACTS.

A new report published by ACTS offers a practical tool for tertiary education institutions to navigate the growing challenges of climate change. Navigating Climate Change – Scenarios for Australia’s Tertiary Education Sector presents four plausible futures to support strategic planning, climate risk disclosure and management and institutional adaptation.

The four scenarios are designed to help institutions assess potential risks and uncertainties rather than act as predictions for the future. Each scenario explores a different global warming pathway and government response, from low to high emissions and from a short-term focus on immediate issues to a long-term focus on future challenges. They also consider the intersection of climate change with other forces such as technological disruption, demographic shifts and geopolitical instability, and how these may reshape Australia’s tertiary education sector.

The report highlights the critical role of tertiary institutions in leading Australia’s climate response. Universities and vocational institutions are uniquely positioned to equip future generations with the resilience, skills and creativity needed to adapt and thrive. They can also advance strategic research that delivers environmental, technological and social solutions, attracting new streams of research funding. Importantly, they can engage communities, support local adaptation efforts and partner with governments in responding to extreme weather events and climate disruptions.

The report comes at a time of growing national and international scrutiny of climate-related risk, with new reporting requirements, such as mandatory climate-related financial disclosures on the horizon. The scenarios offer a timely resource to help institutions identify material risks and embed climate foresight into decision-making, inviting those in strategic roles to reflect on possible disruptions and to respond with foresight and purpose.

Developed through a funded collaboration of 12 Australian universities, the report adapts a framework created by the Tertiary Education Sector Climate Futures Group in Aotearoa New Zealand. Their 2023 project, Climate Change Scenarios for the Aotearoa New Zealand Tertiary Education Sector, brought all tertiary education institutions in New Zealand together to explore potential climate change impacts to the sector through to 2100.

Building on that foundation and led by the ACTS Climate Scenarios Working Group, the process engaged more than 150 stakeholders from across the sector. It explored how climate change may impact Australian tertiary education in the 2030s, 2060s and 2090s, across research, teaching, operations, students, staff and the role of universities, revealing shared challenges such as more frequent extreme weather events, infrastructure strain, and economic disruption.

The resulting publication of Navigating Climate Change marks the start of a broader process. ACTS invites all tertiary institutions to explore the scenarios and use them as a strategic tool to assess climate risks and opportunities. The report includes a five-step approach to support institutions in applying the scenarios and integrating climate adaptation into their planning and disclosure frameworks. Climate adaptation is a journey not a destination, and this report provides a constructive platform to begin mapping a proactive and resilient institutional response.
Navigating Climate Change
File size: 27.84 MB
Created: 26-06-2025
Updated: 26-06-2025
Download Preview

We acknowledge Andrew Jackson as the facilitator and primary writer of this report. His guidance and expertise were invaluable in developing the scenarios.

We acknowledge the significant contributions of the sustainability teams of the twelve universities involved in this work via the ACTS Climate Scenarios Working Group, including:

  • Co-chairs: Clare de Castella (ANU), Aston Howindt (Deakin University) and Carmen Primo Perez (University of Tasmania) who led and coordinated the project.
  • Members: Lynn Delgado (ANU), Edward Maher (Charles Sturt University), Ruth Oliver and Felix Gedye (Monash University), Siobhan McCarthy and Leah Knapp (Murdoch University), Lin Stevenson and Nick Huntington (RMIT University), Cameron Taylor (Swinburne University of Technology), Libby Hogarth (University of Adelaide), Gerard Healey, Sue Hopkins and Chris Dixon (University of Melbourne), Corey Peterson (University of Tasmania), Matthew Newton (University of Western Australia), Clayton McDowell (University of Wollongong) and Andrew Wilks (Victoria University of Wellington).

We acknowledge the academics and subject matter experts who provided their insights and feedback for this report, helping to shape scenarios that were coherent and, while not forecasts, were within the realms of plausibility. Expert contributors include:

  • Dr Jason Alexandra, Research Fellow, Transformational Climate Adaptation and Water, Australian National University
  • Dr Kathleen Beyer, Director Climate Futures Research Group, University of Tasmania
  • Mr Adam Hirsk, Project Lead – Asset Performance and Reporting, Murdoch University
  • Assoc Prof Ben Neville, Deputy Director – Strategic Partnerships and Community Impact, Melbourne Climate Futures, The University of Melbourne
  • Prof Emeritus Kevin Parton, School of Business/Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University
  • Prof Liam Smith, Director BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University

We acknowledge insights and contributions from the following First Nations stakeholders:

  • Dr Richard Walley, Noongar Elder OAM (UWA and Murdoch University), Dr Chanelle van den Berg, Pro Vice Chancellor First Nations Murdoch University, and members of the Kulbardi Aboriginal Education Centre, the School of Indigenous Knowledges and the Ngangk Yira Institute for Change at Murdoch University.
  • Members of the ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions research cluster on Indigenous peoples, cultures and knowledges.

As tertiary education institutions go about the process of mapping their unique climate risks, continued dialogue will be undertaken to ensure First Nations’ perspectives are captured and woven into risk and opportunity analysis.

We acknowledge all who attended and shared with us their thoughts and insights about the future at the 10 workshops that were held to develop the scenarios.

WANT TO SEE MORE WORK LIKE THIS?

This initiative was made possible through the leadership and collaboration of 12 Australian universities committed to climate resilience and sector-wide planning. You can help make more work like this possible by donating to ACTS.

Your support enables ACTS to continue fostering cross-institutional partnerships, developing practical tools, and empowering the tertiary sector to lead meaningful, coordinated responses to climate change.