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11.6. Summary
x
The major private assets in the Study Area include energy infrastructure, maritime transport
facilities, rail infrastructure, Adelaide Airport, as well as significant industries including Adelaide
Brighton Limited, Penrice, and OI. These assets comprise significant capital investments and play
a vital economic role for the region and the State, necessitating development of long term climate
change adaptation measures.
x
There is little available evidence that asset owners have embraced climate change adaptation
planning, with most climate change attention being focused on managing greenhouse gas
emissions. Some companies such as Adelaide Airport, SA Power Network have started to
address climate change adaptation at a strategic level, however for many companies, adaptation
planning generally defaults to broad risk management measures.
x
There are 21,442 businesses in the Study Area. Smaller firms generally have fewer resources
available to undertake climate change adaptation planning.
x
The likely impacts on private assets in the Study Area include flooding and seawater inundation,
damage to buildings and structures, and shut down periods during flooding or extreme heat
events. This may result in a number of flow on impacts, including higher operating costs
associated with power and insurance, increased capital costs associated with retrofitting and
maintenance, supply chain disruptions, escape of pollution, declining productivity associated with
disruptions and delays, reduced safety of energy infrastructure, accelerated depreciation of assets,
redundancy of business models, disruptions to aircraft, ships and train movements. These assets
provide critical goods and services that are utilised across the State, therefore any direct or indirect
climate change impacts upon these would likely result in flow-on effects elsewhere.
x
An economic framework would allow the present value of adaptive response options to be
calculated, taking into account value of the assets, estimated lifespan and replacement costs,
future impacts from climate change upon the assets, costs of damage, and use of appropriate
discount rates.
x
The following data gaps were identified:
Economic data, including employment, valuation of private assets
Insurance details
Initiatives being adopted or intended to be addressed in relation to addressing risks associated
with climate change
Documented business impacts associated with climate change.
