The Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney held the world’s first commercially-available, business-centric course on adapting to climate change for electricity companies this month.
Adaptation to the changing climate is becoming more pressing for electricity transmission and distribution companies due to increased frequency and severity of wind storms, heat waves and floods, the course organisers said.
The course, entitled ‘Climate Change Adaptation for Transmission and Distribution Organisations – Understanding the impact of climate change and developing an adaptation strategy for your organisation’, was be offered for the first time to Australian and Asia-Pacific companies on 25 – 26 June 2009 at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney.
The course was focused on the business impacts of weather and climate change impacts, rather than the science. The course is focused around identifying practical, justifiable and evidence-based adaptation measures that advance the organisation’s corporate objectives.
The course also identified the key business practices and processes that are most affected by climate change which include asset management and design, corporate strategy, risk management, environmental management, and health and safety.
The course was developed with support from Australian associations, Energy Networks Australia and Engineers Australia, and funding from the Department of Climate Change.
It was written by Athol Yates, Australian Security Research Centre and Professor Priyan Mendis, University of Melbourne.