This report summarises a broad expanse of literature about current and projected climate change impacts on the Australian Alps and presents new modelling of climate change impacts on the Australian ski industry (SkiSim2 projections). The report highlights a cascading series of interconnected impacts across alpine tourism, regional communities, hydroelectricity, high country water flows to the Murray-Darling Basin, carbon sequestration, high country ecosystems, and First Nations and makes recommendations to respond to these impacts. The Australian Alps are likely to undergo significant transformation due to climate change. Managing this transformation is inherently normative, as adaptation will require trade-offs between social, economic, and ecosystem values.
Key questions that need to be asked are “what does a desirable future look like, and for whom?”, “how can adaptation be just?”, and “what trade-offs should be made?”. Answering these normative questions requires conversations between communities, First Nations, industry, natural resource managers, and governments. By summarising the impacts of climate change across social, economic, and ecological aspects of the Australian Alps this report seeks to inform these conversations about values, adaptation options, and trade-offs.