Adaptation for All

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ANALYSIS

2024 was Australia’s second-hottest year on record. As climate change progresses, Victoria is experiencing not only hotter days and more frequent disasters, but significant impacts to people’s health, wellbeing and livelihoods.

These impacts are not felt by all Victorians equally – those who are already living in poverty or facing other forms of disadvantage experience the impacts of climate change first and worst. 

This report views the impacts of climate change to Victorians on low incomes through the lens of their capacity to adapt – to adjust to these impacts while maintaining their health and wellbeing. 

This report finds that as climate change progress, it’s fuelling a feedback loop that erodes the capacity of Victorians experiencing poverty and disadvantage to adapt. During heatwaves, for example, some Victorians remain isolated at home for days. Many are adopting drasticmoney-saving behaviours such as avoiding using any energy-consuming equipment at homeor rationing food. People are not choosing these actions because they’re desirable, but rather because they have very few options as the cost of living rises and making ends meet becomes more and more difficult.

This research also finds that the capacity of people experiencing poverty and disadvantage to adapt to climate change mirrors the same structural drivers that perpetuate inequality — such as income insecurity, housing precarity, and systemic marginalisation. As climate change progresses in Victoria, existing social and economic inequities are being compounded. 

If the people with the least capacity to adapt aren’t adequately supported as climate change progresses, the gap between the amount of adaptation needed and people’s capacity to do it will continue to grow. With this, we risk a widening chasm between those who can adapt and those who can’t.  Expecting Victorians on low incomes to support their own adaptation, without adequate support, will exacerbate existing inequalities. 

To close this gap, Victoria must prioritise transformative adaptation — adaptation that addresses systemic inequities and improves health and wellbeing for those on the lowest incomes. If individuals and communities with the least capacity to adapt are the focus of adaptation efforts, wellbeing outcomes can be improved, while growing inequity curbed.

Despite significant cost-of-living pressures, people experiencing poverty and disadvantage – where they are supported by community service organisations – are taking positive steps towards adaptation. Reducing the burden for adaptation on individuals by strengthening action within community organisations and the Victorian Government can help achieve transformative adaptation. 

We have the tools we need to support Victorians living in poverty or experiencing disadvantage to adapt to climate change. Victoria must prioritise transformative adaptation to ensure all Victorians can thrive under a changing climate. 

Recommendations

To work towards transformative adaptation, we recommend the Victorian Government to:

1. Continue to urgently invest in climate mitigation to reduce the scale of climate change impacts. This includes: 

a. Ensure access to electrification, energy efficiency upgrades and solar for people on low incomes — so no one is left behind in the energy transition.

b. Expand minimum energy efficiency standards in rental homes to protect renters from heat and other climate risks.

c. Align planning decisions with climate mitigation goals and more equitable social outcomes.

2. Target adaptation investment towards Victorians experiencing the most significant climate impacts

a. Identify the most climate-vulnerable communities and support them with community-led adaptation planning.

b. Invest in the equity-centred actions in Victoria’s Adaptation Action Plans.

c. Develop and implement an Aboriginal Climate Justice Strategy to respond to climate threats to Country, health and wellbeing.

d. Strengthen the resilience of Victoria’s housing stock through targeted upgrades and support for low-income households.

e. Expand minimum rental standards to include resilience measures that protect renters from a wider range of climate risks.

3. Increase funding for community service organisations (CSOs) and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs)

a. Create a climate adaptation fund for CSOs and ACCOs.

4. Strengthen whole-of-government accountability on climate change and intergenerational equity

a. Create and fund an Office of the Commissioner for the Wellbeing of Future Generations to hold the whole of government accountable for decision-making that promotes the health and wellbeing of future generations.

b. Embed collaboration between Victorian Government departments to address climate change by legislating and strengthening the climate budgeting process.

c. Transparently report progress against Victoria’s Adaptation Action Plans.

These actions are essential for a fair and effective response to climate change—one that ensures no Victorian is left behind as we adapt to a changing climate.