The politics of climate adaptation in Australia’s Murray–Darling basin

<p>Climate change’s effects on water systems are profound, and have significant implications for society and the environment. In Southern Australia, the maths is stark and straightforward: climate change-induced drying results in more competition for less water. As a result, there is sustained conflict over water and climate policy in Australia, fuelled by competing value frameworks and contestation over the evidence used in policy formulation. Sharing water equitably between all claimants is proving intensely challenging, and even without any substantive adjustments for climate change, Australia’s water reforms to date, have been expensive, heavily contested and conflictual. A better understanding of how water governance institutions are responding to climate change risks and uncertainty, and consideration of how they should respond, is therefore vital.</p> <p>This thesis critiques how governance institutions responsible for the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) are responding to climate change. The research examined policy and institutional reforms legislated for sustainable water management, including adapting to climate change. These reforms are contentious. While there is strong scientific evidence that the Basin’s riverine ecosystems and water resources are highly vulnerable to climate change, few studies focus on how policy and institutional processes incorporate and respond to science-based warnings about these risks. To examine how the Murray–Darling Basin Authority handled its legislated requirements to assess and respond to climate risks in preparing the first Basin Plan (2008–12), the research drew on multiple data sources, including document reviews and interviews with senior policy and research professionals. Triangulation between official policy documents and the first-hand experience of those responsible for implementing reforms strengthened this work.</p> <p>The research produced several significant findings that constitute a novel and valuable contribution to knowledge about the adaptive governance of water resources. Firstly, the established institutional arrangements, methods and approaches used for water resources planning in the MDB are failing to adequately handle the dynamics of changing climate and delaying adaptive reforms is likely to exacerbate adjustment costs and problems. Secondly, intersecting technical, political, theoretical and institutional constraints limit governments’ capacity for adaptation. When dealing with large and complex systems like river basins, climate change challenges are testing governments’ capabilities for planning under uncertainty. Thirdly, Australia’s polarised climate politics influenced the implementation of water reforms, constraining policy decisions to options deemed to be of low political risk. Finally, the research demonstrates that in a changing climate, systemic institutional reforms are needed to ensure accountable and adaptive governance of river basins and other large complex socio-ecological systems.</p> <p>The research concludes that climate adaptation is a meta-governance challenge requiring structural reform to strengthen institutional capacities for handling risk and uncertainty, and that greater capabilities are needed for developing proactive policies, and implementing more adaptive governance models (AG). These institutional reforms need to ensure greater transparency in how scientific research is funded, how priorities are determined, and how findings are used to support policy decisions.</p>