Interested to learn how we're responding to climate change in NSW?

Check out our websites on mitigation and adaptation.

This is how we're taking an integrated approach to climate and nature

The NSW Government’s Primary Industries Productivity and Abatement (PIPAP) Program

NSW Government’s $105m Primary Industries Productivity and Abatement Program aims to scale up high quality carbon abatement in the primary industries and land sector. We are achieving this through grant funding for on-ground abatement projects, capacity building for land managers, and market development to improve commercial viability and attract private finance.

Grant funding for on-ground abatement

Our grant programs for on-ground abatement include High Impact Partnerships, Living Carbon and Carbon on Country.

High Impact Partnership grants are supporting revegetation, soil carbon and blue carbon projects which will generate carbon credits alongside a range of other benefits. These will be delivered across nearly 100 locations across NSW.

Living Carbon is providing grants for planting projects with carbon and biodiversity outcomes, and Carbon on Country is offering support to NSW Aboriginal organisations looking to own and manage their own carbon projects.

Capacity building for land managers

The On-Farm Carbon Advice project is providing workshops and expert advice to support farmers in NSW to integrate carbon management into their farm plans.

Talking to farmers in NSW reveals some of the challenges they face in investigating or starting biodiversity and carbon projects. Tailored guidance, resources and tools will help them to navigate these challenges and understand how they can make the most of the opportunities these projects present.

National Parks represent around 9% of all land in the state. The NSW government is supporting projects that enables the natural regeneration of native vegetation by managing weeds, pest animals and other threats.

Image of farmer and cattle on grass pasture

Market development to improve commercial viability and attract private finance

Our market development work aims to ensure that high quality carbon abatement is a commercially viable activity which can attract private finance. An important aspect of this will be enabling co-benefits, such as increased biodiversity and climate resilience, to be understood and valued alongside carbon abatement.

Our approach includes a market enabling fund. This fund will provide investment readiness support for landscape-scale projects that are able to deliver carbon abatement alongside other benefits. It also includes investment in data, measurement and methods which can be used to identify and evaluate opportunities to sequester carbon and achieve other benefits.

Explore PIPAP further

Contact PIPAP [email protected]

Learn more about PIPAP AdaptNSW

Nature is being impacted by climate change

NSW is already experiencing the impacts of climate change. These have included an unprecedented cycle of heatwaves, droughts, bushfires, storms and floods.

Through these changes in weather, climate change will not only affect our health and wellbeing but will also impact the natural environment that supports our way of life.

Close up view of a flower with white petals and a yellow centre. Blurred background

Impacts of climate change on our biodiversity

Australia is home to more than one million species of plants and animals. Many of these are found nowhere else in the world, including 82% of our mammals and 93% of our frogs. Biodiversity drives the natural systems that support all life on the planet, providing us with clean air and water, food and natural resources

view of a young woman standing in the middle of a rainforest looking up

Impacts of climate change on our rainforests

NSW is home to the World Heritage–listed Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, a series of rainforests in north-east NSW and south-east Queensland. Rainforests in Australia and around the world are greatly affected by climate change. Impacts include drought, bushfires, intense storms and changes to cloud cover.

NSW alpine view, with grass in the foreground and snow covered mountains in the background

Impacts of climate change on our alpine areas

The NSW and Australian Capital Territory Alpine region is the highest mountain range in Australia, containing Australia's only peaks of more than 2,000 metres above sea level. Our alpine region is vulnerable to climate change, particularly to increased temperatures which will impact the snow cover that many ecosystems, species and industries rely on.

Cultural Ecosystem Adaptation

Land and Sea manager and Aboriginal community partnerships underpin place-based adaptation projects that protect biodiversity and cultural assets from climate change impacts. Our Cultural Ecosystem Adaptation work includes climate resilient revegetation and other innovative pilot projects that consider climate change impacts in conservation and restoration practices, including in World Heritage areas. We are also working with Traditional Owners, Aboriginal communities and landholders to embed Aboriginal knowledge to protect Country and culture from climate change impacts.

Image of a waterfall with people standing above it

Climate Resilient Restoration

To achieve lasting benefits, restoration needs to be resilient. NSW public and private land managers are empowered as stewards to implement adaptation solutions that protect or transition environmental functions and values. The decision-making tool, Restore and Renew supports restoration practitioners to create genetically and climatically resilient plant communities based on the best available science. We will be launching an upgraded Restore and Renew tool in 2025 with more species and improved functionality.

Seedlings ready for planting at one of 11 sites across the region

How do we plant for a future climate?

The logic of traditional revegetation programs – that locally sourced seed has the best chance of survival – no longer holds true in a changing climate.

“As our climate changes, we must adapt our revegetation activities. We can’t do things the same way in the future as we’ve done in the past.” - Emma Stone, Landcare Coordinator, Border Ranges Richmond Valley Landcare Network

Six volunteers with Climate Resilient Landscapes

Growing resilience: Planting for a changing climate

When botanist Jo Green and a team of volunteers began drafting a guide to help people restore their land and gardens after the devastating bushfires of 2019 and 2020, flood was far from their minds.

"Gardeners and land managers are stewards and guardians of complex ecosystems and can make a difference in the fight against climate change." - Jo Green, Brunswick Valley Landcare

Conservation Adaptation

NSW is increasing the pace and quality of adaptation action by showcasing world leading ecosystem adaptation practices for World Heritage areas.  These practices provide exemplars for others to follow on feasible ways to consider and manage ecosystem values under a changing climate.  Some of the projects we support include;

Identifying and protecting areas of refugia
Transition - building adaptive capacity of vegetation communities with climate resilient planting
Ex-situ - translocations, cultivating genetically resilient species

e The first holistic adaptation plan aims to protect a world heritage rainforest from climate change impacts

How do we secure the survival of our rare rainforest trees for centuries to come?

Some species of Australia’s rainforest trees have existed for more than 50 million years with individuals taking hundreds of years to grow – and work is underway today to improve their likelihood of survival for centuries to come.

Cultural Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation

We are collaboratively working with Traditional Owners, Aboriginal communities and landholders to enable Aboriginal knowledge and ways of thinking to increase understanding of the impacts and key actions to adapt to a changing climate through a cultural perspective.

Through a co-design approach we aim to bring in a range of skills and expertise from Aboriginal people to guide adaptation actions. This approach allows us to understand the cultural landscape and be guided by the cultural values and assets that are important to Aboriginal communities. This will weave western science and cultural knowledge together to have enhanced benefits for Country and culture.

Shell middens at sunset, Worimi Conservation Lands

How Aboriginal culture can help us understand climate change

Cultural knowledge, practice and archaeological evidence show us that Aboriginal people have lived through climate change before – and listening to their voices can help us to understand how to live through climate change again.

Artwork is an abstract visual map of the Australian cultural landscape past, present, and future. Caring for Country by Maddison Gibbs

Learning from Loving Country

The land across New South Wales spans a wide range of climates, from desert in the far west, to grasslands and sub-tropical areas in the north. Throughout these varied landscapes Aboriginal people have lived and adapted to the environment for more than 60,000 years.

2 hands showing sands as part of an Aboriginal art and culture guided tour

Learning to love Country and adapt to climate change

Climate change is more than an environmental phenomenon. As part of the narrative of human influence on the planet, climate change is a new story passed down through the Dreaming. Understanding our role in that story can help us to shape the ending.

Natural habitats and ecosystems play a vital role in regulating the climate, but they are increasingly threatened by rapid climate change.

Conserving existing habitat and repairing ecosystems is essential for driving down emissions. But we also need to support landscapes to adapt to a changing climate if we are to achieve our goals for nature.

The majority of land in NSW is in primary production. Farmers can make a significant contribution to our climate and nature goals without having to compromise on productivity. Public lands also have an important role to play.

If we can learn from Aboriginal communities, and achieve this together, we will benefit nature, build climate resilience, and achieve a range of other cultural, social and economic benefits.

Stacking the value of these benefits improves commercial viability and makes it easier to attract essential investment in restoration.