This research project investigates whether concepts associated with climate change adaptation can be integrated into local government mitigation programs. The research will test if such an integrated approach improves the effectiveness of mitigation programs as well as public understanding the impacts of climate change.

Australian local government has been active in developing and delivering climate change mitigation programs since the early 1990s. More recently, it has played a key role in developing and implementing climate change adaptation strategies. Certain concepts associated with adaptation may be useful in framing community responses to climate change, increasing engagement with mitigation actions and improving resilience.

This research will develop and implement field experiments to test the usefulness of three adaptation concepts:

• overcoming future discounting by making a climate impacted future more real and visible;
• engaging climate change impacted social networks (such as local fire brigades and emergency service workers); and
• testing whether communities with a strong sense of place are more likely to engage in mitigation programs as a result of this identification.

The three interventions will be evaluated, through pre- and post-intervention household surveys, against control groups to test the effectiveness of the interventions. Evaluation will also assess the cost-effectiveness of the program against current local government mitigation programs.