Title: New national biodiversity climate adaptation assessment – invasives identified as key non-climatic stressor
An assessment of the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to climate change was commissioned by the Australian Government. The assessment finds that Australia’s biodiversity is at risk from even moderate climate change and already under stress from habitat degradation, changed fire regimes and invasive species. The assessment concludes that climate change exacerbates the effects of many existing stressors. Controlling or eliminating existing stressors offers an extremely low-risk, high-payback starting point in building resilience of natural systems to climate change.
The Assessment was led by Professor Will Steffen for the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council. It includes the major report, technical synthesis and policy-makers summary.