Committee for Adelaide chief executive Sam Dighton calls for urgent government action as once-productive farms are deserted and extreme weather pummelling SA ports and towns puts entire communities at risk.

Climate risk is no longer tomorrow’s problem. For South Australia, it is already reshaping where we can farm, how we power our economy, and how we safeguard our communities.

Australia’s first National Climate Risk Assessment (NCRA) lays this bare. It maps the hazards – more extreme heat, longer droughts, intensifying bushfires and floods, and rising seas—and warns of escalating threats to our homes, jobs and way of life.

With global warming already at 1.2°C, the report shows that at 1.5°C, we face up to 36 per cent more time in drought and a surge in severe heatwaves. At 3°C, drought could increase by nearly 90 per cent and marine heatwaves could stretch for half the year.

Globally, the picture is even more confronting. The University of Exeter’s Planetary Solvency report projects that if warming exceeds 2°C, global GDP could shrink by a 25 per cent, water and heat stress will drive mass involuntary migration and billions of lives will be lost.

As international thought leaders – Dr Mark Lawrence, Professor Göran Roos and Ross Garnaut AC – recently told Committee for Adelaide members how these risks are not abstract. They are local, personal and increasingly urgent.

South Australia is hotter and drier than ever. The Goyder Line is shifting south, leaving once-productive farms unviable. Ports, towns and infrastructure are more exposed to extreme weather events. Without a clear plan, whole communities risk becoming stranded assets—no homes, no income, no options.

That is why Dr Lawrence argues South Australia urgently needs a comprehensive climate risk framework, properly resourced and........

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