Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit and User Guide: a comprehensive guide to planning for climate change adaptation in three steps

The impacts of climate change are already being experienced in our community from heat waves and intense bushfires to devastating floods. Despite adaptation being discussed for a number of years, organisations are still grappling with how best to respond to this complex problem.

Net Balance, in collaboration with RMIT and the City of Greater Geelong, has developed an Adaptation toolkit. The Toolkit will assist organisations to prioritise their climate risks and adaptation actions and make climate change risk consideration a part of their everyday operations.

Based on practical experience, the Toolkit takes organisations beyond risk assessments – exploring implications of uncertainty on risk and adaptation actions and supports embedding climate change within the decision making processes.

The Toolkit aims to support organisations to:

• Integrate adaptation and support effective and efficient risk management
• Be more responsive to climate change shocks and trends form linkages across different work areas, internally and externally
• Make effective and consistent decisions regarding climate change.

The Toolkit consists of three tools, stepping the user through key considerations of climate change risks, and potential adaptation actions.

Tool 1: Exploring the Risk Context – explores in detail key climate change risks previously identified. The tool explores the interaction between the risk and their broader social, economic and environmental context. It also outlines a process for considering, overcoming or accepting, and documenting the uncertainty associated with each relevant climate change risks.

Tool 2: Developing Adaptation Actions – provides a process for identifying, exploring and evaluating adaptation options, to assist organisations to prioritise actions.

Tool 3: Screening for Climate Change Interactions - outlines a process for decision makers across an organisation to consider any interactions between a new proposal/project and climate change risks and adaptation actions.

The toolkit and user guide are available for free download.

Acknowledgments

The Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit is a comprehensive guide to planning for climate change adaptation in three steps. The impacts of climate change are already being experienced, generating a new series of risks for organisations. Climate change is a complex problem that requires a new integrated and collaborative risk management approach. The Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit has been developed by NetBalance in partnership with the City of Greater Geelong and RMIT University’s Climate Change Adaptation Program.

• http://weadapt.org/knowledge-base/adaptation-decision-making/climate-change-adaptation-toolkit

Digital Toolkits: Strengthen your adaptation skills

The CARE CBA Projects Toolkit offers a practical "how-to" guide for practitioners as they go through the project cycle. It includes step-by-step guidance and recommended tools for all stages of the project cycle, along with links to useful resources and checklists for key project documents. It also includes CBA Project Standards to support high-quality analysis, design, implementation and knowledge management (including monitoring & evaluation). English: www.careclimatechange.org/tk/cba/en Spanish: www.careclimatechange.org/tk/cba/es French: www.careclimatechange.org/tk/cba/fr Portuguese: Coming soon. The CARE Toolkit for Integrating Climate Change into Development Projects provides practical assistance for adapting design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation to the challenges posed by climate change. Its step-by-step structure helps users design climate-resilient interventions with sustainable impacts. The Toolkit also includes simple checklists to ensure that activities don't inadvertently increase people's vulnerability to climate change. It provides guidelines and recommended tools for all stages of the project cycle, as well as practical examples. Water resource management and agricultural projects are specifically highlighted, as they were prioritised for field testing by beta-versions of the Toolkit. English: www.careclimatechange.org/tk/integration/en

Creative City Toolkits

These Toolkits were developed as 'how-to guides' to assist local governments, arts, cultural and heritage organizations with the processes of cultural planning and cultural mapping, and the development of public art projects and programs. The Toolkits are available below as PDF documents.

• http://www.creativecity.ca/english/online-resources-mainmenu-144/ccnc-publications-mainmenu-169/toolkits

The Earth Charter Community Action Tool

The Earth Charter Community Action Tool is your guide to developing and implementing a community sustainability plan. Using EarthCAT, you will be able to learn from the experiences of other communities as you set goals and targets, develop strategies to achieve them, and select indicators for monitoring your progress towards a more sustainable future.

About EarthCAT

The Earth Charter

What EarthCAT can do for you

Contact Us  Download EarthCAT's Complementary Workbook: Taking Action for Sustainability: The EarthCAT Guide to Community Development. Laying the Foundation Vision Goals and Targets Strategies Indicators of Success Reporting Progress Leadership Skills  http://www.earthcat.org/

Online Carbon Dioxide Calculator

Online Carbon Dioxide Calculator:

• http://www.resurgence.org/education/carbon-calculator.html

At the moment humans are making carbon dioxide faster than plants can turn it back into oxygen. Carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere and forms a blanket over the earth, warming it up. This causes climate change, which is threatening human life with rising sea levels, storms and floods.

Low carbon lifestyles create less carbon dioxide emissions. Activities that create carbon dioxide are driving cars, heating homes, generating electricity, flying planes, making goods in factories and transporting things a long way. So in a low carbon lifestyle you live closer to work, insulate your home, holiday by train, buy British products and eat local food. It's a better life too!

How to Start

The best way to start is to calculate your current emissions, so you can see how much you save in a year - you'll be surprised how well you do! To calculate your emissions use the calculator at www.lowcarbonlifestyle.org. Don't feel guilty about your carbon emissions! We've only just found out about the dangers of carbon dioxide.

Lifestyle Changes

Here are some changes you can make, with the approximate CO2 reductions, based on an average lifestyle. A good target is to cut your emissions by 3% per year, the UK Government target.

Feel Good

There are masses of things that have low carbon emissions, including TV, radio, music, computers, sports, arts, crafts, trains, buses, carshare, mail order, email, gardening, walking, socialising and love making. People who have tried it find that a low carbon lifestyle saves money, gives you more free time and brings quality, meaning and satisfaction to life. Later in the 21st Century life will be very similar to today, except we will be fitter, happier and healthier!

Calculate your CO2 emissions

Here are some changes you can make, with the approximate CO₂ reductions, based on an average lifestyle. A good target is to cut your emissions by 3% per year, the UK Government target.

Lifestyle change	CO2 Reduction
Take the bus or train or bicycle to work	15%
Share a car to work	10%
Insulate the attic	5%
Turn down the heating by 2°C	10%
Use low energy light bulbs	3%
Sign up to a renewable electricity company	20%
Holiday by other transport than aeroplane	20%
Buy British, quality, lasting and local	15%
Repair rather than replace	10%
Thoroughly insulate your house	20%

Online Carbon Calculator

To calculate your emissions, use the online carbon calculator designed by Mukti Mitchell.

The Resurgence Carbon Dioxide Calculator

More Carbon Calculators

• Resurgence Quick Carbon Calculator
• Resurgence Heat Loss Calculator
• CFF Farmers and Growers Carbon Calculator
• OAG Holiday Carbon Calculator

The Resurgence Calculator:

• came first in an independent survey of carbon calculators on-line
• is widely recognised as the most user-friendly and accurate on-line carbon calculator
• is often the single calculator referred to in articles on carbon footprinting

You can use the full calculator below to:

• Easily and accurately calculate your carbon footprint
• See which areas of your lifestyle allow the easiest CO2 savings
• Monitor your CO2 emissions from year to year
• Enjoy the feel good factor of knowing how much CO2 you have saved

This is the accurate calculator which requires your domestic energy bills and MOT certificate. If you do not have access to these, select the quick calculator.

More information on using this carbon calculator

What we are going to do is use your domestic energy bills, car mileage, train, ship and air travel and some lifestyle questions to calculate your carbon footprint. As you enter this information into the calculator it will show the CO2 emissions for each area in kg and tonnes (1 tonne = 1,000kg). The totals for all areas are listed at the end giving your carbon footprint.

When calculating your personal carbon dioxide emissions do not include journeys or any other type of CO2 emissions related to your work. Every product and service ends up with a private user, so all work related emissions are divided amongst customers and end up in somebody's personal carbon dioxide calculation. However your CO2 emissions to get to the place of work are included. (Note 1)

Before you start, collect together all your domestic energy bills for one year, preferably the last calendar year. These include electricity, gas, oil and coal, and your latest and previous MOT certificates.

N.B. This calculator uses the abbreviated phrase ‘carbon’ for ‘carbon dioxide’ in places, but all figures in the calculator refer to carbon dioxide (not carbon). (Note 2)

For readers with a deeper interest, methodology notes referred to by numbers throughout the calculator can be found at the bottom.

To use the calculator on-screen

Simply fill in the forms with your figures. The figures will automatically update as you proceed, including the the grand total table at the end of this page.