Too much too soon? On the rise and fall of Australia's coastal climate change law

Abstract

For a number of years, government and academic sources have labelled adaptation to climate change an issue for risk management. These sources have recommended methods and procedures for calculating the range of risks presented by climate change. However, analysing risk is only one part of the equation; the more intractable problem lies in deciding how to respond to those risks. The article explores how the risk threshold has been set in recent policy documents and in newly emergent legislation. It analyses two case studies - neither of which can claim unequivocal success - as test cases for the leading policy recommendations. Given the twists and turns in the law and policy at work in both case studies, it is questioned whether the risk threshold was set correctly in either case and also considered are what changes need to be made, both in setting the risk threshold and in determining the appropriate legal tools for that threshold