While most climate policy conversation focuses on mitigation — reducing emissions — Australian communities are already dealing with the consequences of a changing climate. Floods, bushfires, heatwaves, and coastal erosion aren’t future threats. They’re current realities.

Adaptation costs money. Infrastructure upgrades, community resilience programs, ecosystem restoration, and emergency preparedness all require investment. The good news is that funding is available from multiple sources. The bad news is that the funding landscape is fragmented, competitive, and often confusing.

Here’s a practical guide to the main funding sources for climate adaptation in Australia and how to access them.

Federal government programs

Disaster Ready Fund. The federal government’s Disaster Ready Fund commits $1 billion over five years to pre-disaster resilience projects. Funding is available for infrastructure hardening, natural disaster mitigation, and community resilience initiatives. Applications are typically open to state and local governments, but community organisations can participate as delivery partners.

National Recovery and Resilience Agency (NRRA) programs. The NRRA administers several grant programs for disaster preparedness and climate adaptation. These include funding for community-led resilience initiatives, infrastructure upgrades, and research into climate adaptation approaches.

Climate Active programs. While primarily focused on carbon neutrality, some Climate Active initiatives support adaptation activities, particularly for organisations working on ecosystem-based adaptation approaches.

The key challenge with federal funding is that it’s often available to government entities rather than directly to community organisations. If you’re a nonprofit or social enterprise, look for partnerships with local government that allow you to access federal funding as a delivery partner.

State and territory programs

Each state and territory has its own climate adaptation programs, and the specifics change frequently. Some current examples:

NSW: The Climate Change Fund supports adaptation projects including community resilience, infrastructure upgrades, and urban heat mitigation.

Victoria: The Emissions Reduction and Adaptation program supports community-led climate adaptation initiatives. The Neighbourhood Batteries Initiative, while primarily focused on energy, also contributes to community resilience.

Queensland: The QCoast2100 program specifically supports coastal communities adapting to sea-level rise and storm surge. The Queensland Reconstruction Authority also runs pre-disaster resilience programs.

Western Australia: Various programs through the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation support climate adaptation in areas like water management, biodiversity, and coastal protection.

Check your state government’s environment and climate change agency regularly, as new programs are announced frequently.

Local government funding

Local councils are increasingly active in climate adaptation, and some have their own grant programs for community climate initiatives. Environmental upgrade finance schemes in some jurisdictions allow property owners to fund climate adaptation improvements through rates-linked financing.

Even where councils don’t have dedicated adaptation grants, they often have community grants programs that can fund climate-related projects if framed appropriately.

Philanthropic funding

Several Australian philanthropic foundations fund climate adaptation work, though most focus on specific aspects.

The Paul Ramsay Foundation has funded community resilience initiatives. The Ian Potter Foundation supports environmental programs that may include adaptation components. The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation in Melbourne has a specific focus on urban sustainability and resilience.

Philanthropic funding tends to be more flexible than government grants and can be used for innovative approaches that government programs might not cover. The trade-off is that it’s typically smaller in scale.

Tips for successful applications

Having read and assessed hundreds of climate adaptation funding applications over the years, here’s what distinguishes the successful ones.

Be specific about the climate risk. Don’t talk vaguely about climate change. Identify the specific climate hazard your community faces, the evidence for it, and the projected trajectory. Use local climate projection data from the Bureau of Meteorology or CSIRO.

Demonstrate community need and engagement. Show that the project addresses a genuine community need and that the community has been involved in identifying the problem and designing the solution. Community-led adaptation is increasingly prioritised by funders.

Show how the project reduces risk. Funders want to see a clear logic of how the proposed project will reduce climate risk. What’s the current level of risk? What will the risk be after the project? How will you measure the change?

Address equity. Climate change disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities. Projects that address climate adaptation for vulnerable populations — First Nations communities, low-income households, people with disability, older people — are increasingly prioritised.

Plan for sustainability. What happens after the grant ends? Funders want to know that the project will have lasting benefits, not just temporary improvements that degrade without ongoing investment.

The gap that remains

Despite the growing number of funding programs, the amount of money available for climate adaptation in Australia falls far short of what’s needed. Research consistently shows that investing in adaptation and pre-disaster resilience is far more cost-effective than responding to disasters after they happen, but funding still skews heavily toward recovery rather than prevention.

Closing this gap requires sustained advocacy from communities, more strategic coordination between funding programs, and a fundamental shift in how Australian governments budget for climate risk. The money we don’t spend on adaptation today, we’ll spend several times over on disaster recovery tomorrow.