According to new City of Melbourne research the extreme heat experienced in the Victorian state capital from January 14-17 is estimated to have cost businesses in the municipality approximately $37 million in lost revenue.
As a result of the council research it is also set to appoint a Chief Resilience Officer.
The council said localising the impacts of climate change was a key way to secure support for mitigation and adaptation measures, which was what made this survey of more than 600 local businesses particularly powerful.
It found an overall decline in revenue of almost 10 per cent over the three days.
Retail, food and beverage and accommodation were most affect, with 78 per cent of these types of businesses impacted.
Other key findings include:
• 59 per cent reported an impact on the comfort, motivation or moral of their workforce;
• 40 per cent reported an impact on the reliability of their workforce;
• 62 per cent experienced additional operational costs (such as increased air-conditioning operation); and
* seven per cent reported air-conditioning failures.
The survey also indicated 44 per cent of businesses took action to help staff cope with the heat, such as letting their staff start or finish earlier (seven per cent and buying cold drinks or fans to keep staff cool.
The findings are part of research commissioned by the City of Melbourne as part of its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.
It aims to understand the economic impacts of heatwaves, which are expected to increase in frequency and intensity.
It found some 52 per cent of businesses were very or fairly concerned about future heat wave impacts on their business.
Councillor Arron Wood, chair of the council’s Environment portfolio, said the council was focused on building Melbourne’s resilience to climate impacts.
“Heatwaves don’t only impact our city economically, heat related illness also kills more Australian’s each year than any other natural disaster so City of Melbourne has identified this as a priority issue we must prepare better for,” he said.
It is doubling tree canopy cover, upgrading drainage infrastructure, funding more energy efficient buildings, implementing planning processes to minimise climate risk and installing various water-sensitive urban design initiatives.
As of December, it is also one of the 33 initial members of the 100 Resilient Cities Program under the Rockefeller Foundation.
As part of this program Melbourne will receive support to recruit a Chief Resilience Officer whose role will be to create a Resilience Strategy for metropolitan Melbourne.
The council is convening a meeting of industry experts tomorrow to pinpoint what Melbourne needs to become a more resilient city.
It will also hosting a Melbourne Conversations event at Federation Square tonight from 6pm-7.30pm, titled Not So Hypothetical – A Heated Conversation.
