Climate Adaptation in Ararat Rural City

The impacts of a changing climate are already being felt in Ararat and across the region. The Victorian Climate Science report (2024) outlined the following climate projections for the Central Highlands region: 

• Minimum and maximum daily temperatures will continue to increase until at least 2050. Average annual temperature increasing by 1oc (low emissions)- 1.4oc (high emissions) by 2050. Hot days and nights will be hotter and more frequent, with longer more intense heatwaves 
   
• Rainfall will continue to be variable over time, but over the long term is expected to continue declining in the cool season, with unknown impacts to summer rainfall. Extreme rainfall evens will be more intense on average to 2100. 
   
• Floods, heatwaves, drought and bushfires are changing. 

Council’s Adaptation & Environmental Action

Reducing municipal emissions helps strengthen local environmental resilience and supports broader adaptation efforts. Ararat’s municipal emissions have decreased in the last five years (from the 2020-2021 reporting period to 2023-2024 period), but there is still room to improve. 

Key Emission Sources: 

1. Agriculture (57% of total emission): top producer is sheep/ beef farming (93%) 
2. Transport (26% of total emissions): top producer is automotive travel (81%) 
3. Electricity (12% of total emissions):  top producer is residential power (43%) 

Council is working to reduce emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change through the following initiatives: 

Electrification of Vehicles
Council has an Electrification Policy in place to guide the transition towards battery electric fleet and plant vehicles.  

Increasing Canopy Cover 
Council has committed to increasing canopy cover to 30% in all major townships. Planting is being undertaken in alignment with the Urban Forest Management Plan developed by Ararat Landcare in partnership with Ararat Rural City Council. In addition to local cooling and carbon absorption, a key component of the Urban Forest Management Plan is ensuring species are selected in consideration of the changing climate, risks to community safety and infrastructure, biodiversity, and community values.  

Household Resource Management
The majority of household emissions come from energy use, as well as the consumption of materials and products. Reducing your resource and material use has the additional benefits of reducing your waste impacts and living costs. More resources to calculate your resource uses, and how you can reduce them, can be found on the Sustainability and Circular Economy page of the Council website. 

In addition to municipal sustainability initiatives, Council is working directly to increase the adaptive capacity and emergency preparedness of the local community.

Power Support During Emergencies 
Pomonal Community Hall energy backup system, funded as part of Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance’s Powering Resilience in the Regions project, supported by the Victorian Government through the 100 Neighbourhood Batteries program (Round 2). 

Below are a list of tools which allow you to calculate your emissions footprint.