June 29, 2026
Australia is already experiencing the impacts of climate change, including more frequent and intense heatwaves, bushfires, droughts, floods and coastal erosion. In response, governments, businesses, community organisations and research institutions are taking action to adapt to a changing climate. Understanding the scale, type and distribution of these actions is critical to tracking national progress and identifying gaps, opportunities and emerging trends.
The Australian Adaptation Database was developed to improve understanding of Australia’s progress toward climate change adaptation. It is a systematic, publicly accessible collection of documented climate adaptation activities occurring across Australia. When adaptation data is publicly available, it can result in communities and decision-makers learning from one another. It helps to provide accountability at every level, from local government through to keeping international commitments, such as those made under the United Nations Framework. And it allows us to see how adaptation is progressing across sectors and scales, making change visible.
State of Climate Change Adaptation in Australia
With the National Adaptation Plan released last year, this series of State of Climate Change Adaptation in Australia reports provide a timely snapshot of where Australia stands. As the Australian Adaptation Database continues to expand and quarterly reports track trends, we will gain a clearer picture of what is changing. An understanding that is key to delivering long-term, effective adaptation.
Findings covering the latest quarter (June 2026) include:
- In this reporting period, there have been an additional 51 entries coded into the database.
- There are few changes to the trends outlined in Q1; entries will increase later in 2026 and additional changes are expected.
- State and territory governments remain the most common actors responsible for adaptation initiatives in our data, connected to 40% of initiatives, however local government representation is increasing.
- Different types of governance instruments (e.g. policies) can be differentiated according to their intention and substance. Intention refers to commitments made and substance refers to how they will be realised.
- The Australian Adaptation Database uses ‘tags’ to keep track of networks between related initiatives. These tags can be accessed on the website.
- AI large language models can search the web with greater nuance than standard key word searches, capturing a broad array of adaptation relevant activities. We are testing if AI can automate how we collect and categorise adaptation data.
Download the latest quarter score card >
Findings covering the period April 2025 to January 2026 include:
- Adaptation activity in Australia has increased over time.
- More than half of the adaptation initiatives in our database are from 2020 to 2025.
- State and territory governments are the most common actors responsible for adaptation initiatives in our data, connected to 40% of initiatives.
- Most initiatives in the database respond to ‘general climate change’ rather than being connected to a specific climate hazard. This suggests that most adaptation activity intends to address broad, cross‑cutting climate risks and their secondary impacts, instead of targeting a single or distinct climate hazard.
- Governance instruments, comprising largely of strategies, plans, and policies, are the most common type of initiative in our data, followed by tangible interventions.
- The geographic distribution of initiatives represented likely reflects reporting capacity, though we expect jurisdictions with greater capacity to report also have greater capacity to undertake adaptation.
