New comprehensive climate change projections for Australia have just been completed by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology in close consultation with Natural Resource Management groups and researchers. In response to user needs, a major means of disseminating the projections products is through the web-site, www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au .

The Australian Climate Futures web-tool is designed to provide guidance in the generation of climate projections for impact and adaptation assessments.

The Australian Climate Futures web-tool is built on CSIRO's Representative Climate Futures Framework, and has four key functions:

1. Enable plain English descriptions of future climate scenarios at a range of spatial scales,
2. Compare projections from different sources, including different generations of climate models and/or downscaled results,
3. Contextualise pre-existing impact assessments such as those undertaken using earlier generation climate models,
4. Obtain detailed projections data for specific impact assessments.

Focussing on the last of these functions, we will demonstrate the process of using theAustralian Climate Futures web-tool and related sections of the Climate Change in Australia web-site to obtain application-ready datasets for use in an impact assessment to inform adaptation. Application-ready data are generated in several ways, depending on the variable and spatial scale required, but all make use of the highest quality observed data available.

In recent years, a research version of this tool has been used to provide data for many studies in sectors ranging from building energy regulation to forest management and snow cover. Versions have also been developed for 15 Pacific island nations and Vietnam