Two major motorway upgrade projects in Brisbane assessed climate change risks through their Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating programs. The rating scheme assigned a ‘very high’ materiality to these climate change credits, making good performance in these areas highly valuable for points.

We were engaged to carry out climate change risk assessments, undertaking the following:

• Reviewing project requirements
• Conducting climate and adaptation research
• Facilitating stakeholder risk workshops
• Applying the AS5334 process
• Compiling a risk assessment and adaptation plan.

Our method featured the following:

• Using the CSIRO/BOM ‘climate analogues’
• Addressing people-related risks (e.g. heat stress on maintenance workers)
• Researching potentially high-risk areas to obtain site and industry-specific data, for more precise application of consequence and likelihood criteria
• Minimising residual risks by linking with asset managers and assessing the optimal scale and timing of adaptations.

The projects were thus able to target ‘Level 3’ for the credits, which contribute as much as 8 points towards their IS ratings.