An assessment of the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to climate change was commissioned by the Australian Government to help increase our understanding of how to help Australia’s rich biodiversity adapt to climate change.
The assessment finds that Australia’s biodiversity is at risk from even moderate climate change and already under stress, for example from habitat degradation, changed fire regimes and invasive species.
Climate change is likely to exacerbate these existing stressors and add additional stresses such as through declining water availability.
- Australia is one of 17 megadiverse countries – a group of countries that harbour more than 70% of the Earth's species and are therefore considered extremely biodiverse.
Australia has many species that are unique to Australia and vulnerable to climate change.
About 85% of Australia’s terrestrial mammals, 91% of flowering plants, and 90% of reptiles and frogs are found nowhere else in the world. More than 50% of the world’s marsupial species occur only in Australia.
Rates of extinction of species are likely to increase as the global average temperature rises by just 1.0 or 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and likely to accelerate sharply as temperature rises beyond 2°C.
The Assessment was undertaken by an independent group of experts, led by Professor Will Steffen, for the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council.
Read the Assessment
Main report entitled Australia’s Biodiversity and Climate Change (low res) is available in pre-publication form as a non-printable PDF. It will be published as a book by CSIRO Publishing anticipated late 2009. Pre-order your copy by visiting the CSIRO Publishing web site >
Biodiversity vulnerability assessment summary for policy makers (1.1 MB)
Technical synthesis (172 KB)
Fact sheets
Australia's biodiversity and climage change overview (269 KB)
Climate change, fire and the little penguin (305 KB)
Climate change and invasive species
(296 KB)
The Great Barrier Reef and Climate Change (289 KB)
Kakadu a climate change hotspot (307 KB)