Climate Change Policy

Purpose This policy recognises the impact of, and threat posed by change to Australia’s birds and biodiversity. It enables BirdLife Australia to explore policy solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation in the interests of birds. It provides direction for BirdLife Australia in its engagement in climate change-related conservation policy debates and advocacy. It also governs the development of climate-neutral operations across BirdLife Australia.

This policy complements and should be read in conjunction with BirdLife Australia’s other relevant conservation policies.

Policy 1. BirdLife Australia understands that anthropogenic climate change is presenting a threat to Australia’s birds.

2. BirdLife Australia supports global greenhouse gas emission reductions and

sequestration measures sufficient to achieve a global atmospheric CO 2 concentration

of 350ppm or less, and simultaneous policies to reduce non- CO 2 greenhouse gasses.

3. BirdLife Australia supports progressive reduction in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions leading to minimal net emissions.

4. BirdLife Australia supports the use of an integrated suite of policy measures in achieving the above, including strong legislative, regulatory and market measures.

5. BirdLife Australia supports the development and implementation of climate change adaptation strategies for birds and biodiversity including strategies related to points 6 and 7 below, and consistent with BirdLife Australia’s connectivity policy.

6. BirdLife Australia calls for an increase in efforts to tackle threats to birds and biodiversity, in order to afford increased resilience to ecosystems and to counter the exacerbation of threats which will generally occur under climate change.

7. BirdLife Australia calls for the protection of natural carbon stores, and supports large scale habitat restoration and revegetation programs to achieve dual biodiversity and greenhouse gas abatement/carbon sequestration outcomes. Such programs must not harm biodiversity and should maximise biodiversity outcomes in order to deliver ecosystem resilience.

8. BirdLife Australia commits to reducing its own carbon footprint to achieve and then maintain carbon-neutral or carbon negative status.

Policy Number: 2012/013 Date Adopted: 24 November 2012 Last Updated: 16 November 2012

Background Global climate change has been recognised as a threat to Australia's biodiversity for many years and is already having an impact on birds, their habitats and ecosystems. This underlines the need for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions through abatement and sequestration, and development of adaptation strategies for birds and biodiversity.

Climate change is occurring in large part due to emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use, and destruction and degradation of native vegetation and ecosystems due to human activities. Greenhouse gasses accumulate and persist in the atmosphere, lending considerable urgency to the tasks of mitigation and adaptation.

Examples of the real and present impacts of climate change on birds include:

• Decline in abundance of 84 woodland bird taxa in central Victoria between 1995 and 2008 because of food shortages due to rainfall reductions consistent with climate change;

• Death from heat stress of 208 Endangered Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos in January 2012 in south-western Australia;

• A 94% crash in the Rockhopper Penguin population on sub-Antarctic Campbell island (NZ), attributed in part to warming climate conditions altering habitat and food supply.

Mitigation of climate change is already essential in the interests of birds. This will require strong legislative and regulatory instruments, economic and market signals, and voluntary action. BirdLife Australia’s detailed position on any such measures will be developed consistent with this policy as legislative and policy interventions are proposed.

In 2008, NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies ( et al .) called for global atmospheric CO 2 concentrations to be held at or below 350 parts per million (ppm) in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. BirdLife Australia regards this as a pragmatic principle in the context of an industrialised planet and in light of the likely effects of various CO 2 concentrations on the climate. Various other short and medium term targets have been proposed for emission reductions in an Australian context (for example zero emissions by 2050) but the important point is that greenhouse gasses accumulate and are long-lived in the atmosphere. Therefore, while debate about specific targets will continue, minimal net emissions must be a goal.

The development of clean energy technologies which avoid harm to bird populations and bird habitats will be important in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (see also BirdLife Australia’s Wind Farms and Birds Policy).

Current global concentrations of atmospheric CO 2 are 390ppm and climbing, meaning that emission reductions (abatement) alone will not suffice (especially given the persistence of these gasses in the atmosphere) and so sequestration of atmospheric CO 2 will also be required. Strategies for adaptation to the (now inevitable) impacts of climate change are also needed. These will entail adaptive management and a focus on building the resilience of ecosystems including mitigation of other threats to birds many of which may be exacerbated by climate change.

BirdLife’s detailed understanding of the challenges for birds in adapting to climate change, and techniques and strategies whereby we might support adaptation, will be developed and described as we undertake our bird conservation work.

The conservation of native vegetation and other natural carbon stores such as those associated with tidal mud-flats is crucial in avoiding emissions and contributing to the mitigation of climate change impacts on birds. Abatement of emissions and sequestration of

Policy Number: 2012/013 Date Adopted: 24 November 2012 2 Last Updated: 16 November 2012

carbon through revegetation, restoration and improved management of bird habitats is similarly important both in mitigation of climate change impacts and in facilitating birds’ adaptation to changed climatic conditions. BirdLife Australia’s Native Vegetation Conservation Policy, Carbon Offsets (Maximising Biodiversity Conservation Outcomes) Policy and other relevant conservation policies should be read in conjunction with this policy, in advancing these ends.

Definitions Abatement A human intervention which lessens the emission of greenhouse gasses from their source(s). Adaptation Adjustment or preparation of natural or human systems to a new or changing climate, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. Climate Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the "average weather," or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands of years. The most generally accepted period is 3 decades, as defined by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). These quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system. Climate Change Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. In other words, climate change includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among others, that occur over several decades or longer. Carbon Offset This refers to the sequestration of greenhouse gasses or abatement of particular greenhouse gas emissions in order to counterbalance emissions elsewhere. Fossil Fuel A general term for organic materials formed from decayed plants and animals converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth's crust over millions of years. Greenhouse Gas Any gas that absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include, , methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride. Mitigation A human intervention to reduce the human impact on the climate system; it includes interventions to lessen greenhouse gas emissions from their source(s) (i.e. abatement) and interventions to increase non-atmospheric greenhouse gas reservoirs (through sequestration). Sequestration The process of increasing the carbon content of a carbon reservoir (or store) other than the atmosphere. Terrestrial, or biologic, carbon sequestration is the process by which trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide, release the oxygen, and store the carbon.

Policy Number: 2012/013 Date Adopted: 24 November 2012 3 Last Updated: 16 November 2012

Sink A carbon sink is any process, activity or mechanism that removes (sequesters) more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases (emits), accumulating and storing the remainder.

Selected References Australian Conservation Foundation 2010, Set Science based targets to cut greenhouse pollution , Policy Brief 2.1, www.acfonline.org.au , July

Australian Government 2009a , Australia’s Biodiversity and Climate Change, Summary for policy makers 2009 , Summary of a report to the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council commissioned by the Australian Government, Australian Government, Canberra.

BirdLife International (2008) BirdLife International’s Position on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International.

Climate Risk Pty Ltd (no date), Bird Species and Climate Change: The global status report version 1.0 , www.climaterisk.net

Hoffmann, Ary A & Sgro Carla M. February 2011, Climate Change and evolutionary adaptation , Nature, Vol 470, pp. 479-485, Macmillan. http://www.climatechange.gov.au/publications/biodiversity/~/media/publications/biodiversity /biodiversity-vulnerability-assessment-lowres.ashx Some of these guys also wrote a book: http://www.qbd.com.au/product/9780643096059- Australias_Biodiversity_and_Climate_Change_by_Will_Steffan_Andrew_A_Burbidge_Lesley_H ughes.htm

James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Pushker Kharecha, , Robert Berner, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Mark Pagani, Maureen Raymo, Dana L. Royer and James C. Zachos 2008, Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim? , Open Atmos. Sci. J., vol. 2, pp. 217- 231

Ralph Mac Nally, Andrew F. Bennett, James R. Thomson, James Q. Radford, Guy Unmack, Gregory Horrocks and Peter A. Vesk 2009, Collapse of an avifauna: climate change appears to exacerbate habitat loss and degradation , Diversity and Distributions, Volume 15, Issue 4, pp. 720–730.

Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council 2010, Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010-2030 , Australian Government, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra.

Saunders D A, Mawson P and Dawson R 2011, The impact of two extreme weather events and other causes of death on Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo: a promise of things to come for a threatened species? , Pacific Conservation Biology Vol.17: 141-148.

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2006, Global Biodiversity Outlook 2, Montreal.

United Nations Environment Program (no date), The Emissions Gap Report: Are the Copenhagen Accord Pledges Sufficient to Limit Global Warming to 2 oC or 1.5 oC? A Preliminary Assessment , Technical Summary, UNEP, Kenya, www.unep.org .

United States Environment Protection Agency 2012, Glossary of Climate Change Terms, http://epa.gov/climatechange/glossary.html .

Policy Number: 2012/013 Date Adopted: 24 November 2012 4 Last Updated: 16 November 2012