Tag Archive for: Disaster

The challenge of energy resilience in Australia: Strategic options for continuity of supply

The intent of this report is to examine approaches to ensuring Australia’s energy sources are resilient.

It discusses Australia’s energy continuity needs from a complex system-of-systems perspective and details several systemic vulnerabilities that contribute to potential gaps in the resilience of our energy supply.

The report provides options for addressing the surety of energy supply, reforming energy supply through the electricity grid, addressing evolving transport energy demand, and future-proofing our communities.

Steps to fulfilling these strategic options are examined in several recommendations addressing whole-of-government and whole-of-nation gaps in energy policy.

Coordination of federal, state and local disaster management arrangements in Australia: Lessons from the UK and the US

This document discusses the gaps in Australia’s emergency management legislation and the coordination of federal, state and local disaster management arrangements in Australia.

It analyses key legislation from the UK and US jurisdictions and reveals important lessons that could be adopted in Australia.

Bolstering national disaster resilience: What can be done?

This report outlines the goals of ASPI’s Risk and Resilience Program. It introduces several broad areas to be covered and measures to strengthen mitigation, response and recovery options spanning the community, state and federal spheres. The program will contribute to our long-term thinking on how best to prepare for and recover from disasters.

Working as one: A road map to disaster resilience for Australia

Natural disasters cause widespread disruption, costing the Australian economy $6.3 billion per year, and those costs are projected to rise incrementally to $23 billion by 2050.

With more frequent natural disasters with greater consequences, Australian communities need the ability to prepare and plan for them, absorb and recover from them, and adapt more successfully to their effects.

Enhancing Australian resilience will allow us to better anticipate disasters and assist in planning to reduce losses, rather than just waiting for the next king hit and paying for it afterwards.

This report offers a roadmap for enhancing Australia’s disaster resilience, building on the 2011 National Strategy for Disaster Resilience. It includes a snapshot of relevant issues and current resilience efforts in Australia, outlining key challenges and opportunities.

The report sets out 11 recommendations to help guide Australia towards increasing national resilience, from individuals and local communities through to state and federal agencies.

Special Report Issue 43 – More than good deeds: Disaster risk management and Australian, Japanese and US Defence forces

This report, authored by Athol Yates and Anthony Bergin, suggests that Asia–Pacific states need to allocate greater resources to risk reduction activities and increase the speed and effectiveness of relief efforts.

Australia, Japan and the US are active in promoting disaster risk management as a key component of their Asia–Pacific relations and regional military engagement strategies.

This report argues that the three states’ militaries will continue to play an increasing role across the disaster risk management spectrum.

The primary justification for dispatching defence forces to help another country experiencing a disaster is usually humanitarian.

But for Australia, Japan and the US, there are several other drivers: reinforcing alliances and partnerships, advancing foreign policy agendas and providing knowledge of operational military capabilities.
To better match the three nations’ defence forces’ disaster assistance capabilities with government expectations, the report recommends:

Watch a video of Anthony Bergin discussing this paper on ASPI’s YouTube channel.

Strategic Insights 54 – Keeping the home fires burning: Australia’s energy security

In this paper, Andrew Davies and Edward Mortimer look at Australia’s energy security. Energy is the lifeblood of modern economies. The correlation between energy consumption and prosperity is strong—and that’s unlikely to change. Those simple observations have some profound implications.

Australia, like all modern economies, needs an assured supply of energy to function effectively. As a net exporter of energy, Australia is well placed in most respects. But we are still reliant on external sources of oil. The first part of this report examines Australia’s vulnerability to interruptions in the oil supply over the next few years.

Over the next couple of decades, externalities will reshape the world market for energy. In particular, the sources of oil will be increasingly concentrated in the hands of OPEC producers. At the same time, greatly increased consumption of energy by the developing economies of India and China will increasingly concentrate consumption in non-OECD countries. So the mechanisms for managing world energy markets—such as the International Energy Agency—will increasingly reflect a historic view of energy production and consumption. The second part of the paper looks at mechanisms by which Australia and other developed economies can adjust to the new realities.

The last part of the paper looks at the potential for renewable energy to meet a substantial proportion of Australian and global energy requirements. The conclusion is that current technologies are unlikely to meet demand.

King-hit: preparing for Australia’s disaster future

This paper makes recommendations as to how Australia can be better prepared for and recover from future natural disasters.

Suggestions include:

  • measuring and reporting on community resilience;
  • providing disaster funds on the condition that new structures are made to be more resilient than the structures they replace;
  • asking the  Productivity Commission to investigate if the Commonwealth has got value from the billions spent on disaster response and recovery;
  • declaring an annual national disaster prevention day;
  • developing national hazard mapping and a national sea level rise policy statement;
  • introducing  durability ratings for buildings;
  • providing information to individual insurance policy holders on the risks associated with their property;
  • developing a national policy on retreating from hazardous areas to reduce people’s exposure to severe risks; and;
  • starting a national communications campaign to encourage individual and community preparedness.

Special Report Issue 37 – Sharing risk: Financing Australia’s disaster resilience

This paper argues that it’s time to start thinking strategically about how we can reduce future losses from natural disasters and aid victims in their recovery efforts. We should be asking fundamental questions about how private insurance and government assistance can be better leveraged to help communities recover.

The paper makes nine recommendations to strengthen the role of insurance for Australian disaster resilience including:
 

  • establishing a regular dialogue between the insurance sector and state and federal governments to allow both sides to look at long-term disaster mitigation and recovery strategies
  • encouraging governments and insurers to work to develop programs that enhance financial literacy as a way to reduce disaster losses and cost-effective ways for individuals to be financially rewarded for taking measures to safeguard their properties
  • supporting mortgage lenders to require a property to have full insurance coverage against natural hazards and for this to be well enforced
  • implementing the Henry Review on tax that specific taxes on insurance products be abolished
  • embedding mitigation efforts with disaster assistance funding to reduce risk exposure for communities and insurers
  • conducting comprehensive landscape assessments to ensure insurance premiums are based on risk and thus send a signal to people to reduce their vulnerability to major disasters
  • urging the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to commission a study on initiatives to enhance the take-up of insurance cover and examine various schemes to encourage resilience through insurance arrangements.

We need a new approach to financing the costs of natural disasters and encouraging those living in high-risk areas to be better prepared. The reality is that all Australian taxpayers will have to bear a share of this cost.

Critical foundations: Australia’s infrastructure and national resilience

This paper argues that neglecting the critical foundations that have made Australian society prosperous  isn’t a sound investment in national security resilience. A stronger strategic framework for business to work with governments on delivering such projects is needed.

Business needs a clear understanding of what projects will emerge over the next five to ten years in order to focus its resources.

We need to develop clear ways in which a project’s benefits can be expressed so the community can understand what’s proposed and measure progress.  And the cost benefit analysis has to include social benefits as well as economic benefits.

Crumbling infrastructure, whether it be clogged ports or congested roads, will imperil our safety and security, quality of life, and economic competitiveness.

Special Report Issue 28 – Here to help: Strengthening the Defence role in Australian disaster management

This Special Report argues that it’s time for Defence to more fully incorporate domestic disaster assistance tasks as part of its core business.

Defence is likely to be used more frequently in the future to assist in domestic disaster management. There will be larger and more frequent extreme weather events due to climate change; increased vulnerability of the growing populations in coastal developments and in bushfire-prone areas; continual reduction per capita in the number of volunteers and emergency services personnel; and growing community and political expectations to use military resources to support whole-of-government counter-disaster efforts.

To prepare for the increased demand on, and expectations for the use of, Defence in disaster management there are three actions that should be taken:

  • Australian Government should clarify that Australian disaster assistance is an ADF priority task. Elevating domestic disaster assistance into a core Defence activity will ensure that this priority flows through the Australian Defence organisation.
  • Defence should undertake a fundamental review of its domestic disaster assistance role with the goal of maximising its contribution to Australian disaster management. This is likely to involve modifying existing organisations, policies and procedures, logistics and training.
  • Defence and civil counter-disaster organisations should work together to facilitate the transfer of capability development, research and development and other skills to accelerate the development of the states and territories next-generation disaster management systems.

Tag Archive for: Disaster

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Tag Archive for: Disaster

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