Are we ready for the extreme weather ahead?

Across the northern hemisphere this year, extreme heat and wildfires have taken lives, forced people from their homes, and pushed communities and emergency services to their limits.

Now Australia is heading into an El Niño summer, with a positive Indian Ocean Dipole also likely to develop. Together, these climate patterns can bring hotter, drier conditions across parts of Australia.

But they’re not happening in isolation. They’re unfolding in a world already made hotter by decades of burning coal, oil and gas – amplifying the risks of extreme heat, drought and fire.

We can't stop events like an El Niño. But we can stop making it worse. What we do now will still shape how hot and how dangerous our summers become.

Join us for a special briefing on what the latest climate outlook could mean for Australia over the next two summers, how communities and emergency services are preparing, and what we can do to reduce the risks ahead.

Dr Andrew Watkins, Adjunct Professor at Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment and former Head of Climate Prediction at the Bureau of Meteorology, will unpack how El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole climate cycles work, how they interact with climate change, and what the latest outlooks could mean for different parts of Australia.

Greg Mullins, AO AFSM, founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action and a firefighter for more than 50 years, will bring a frontline perspective about what these conditions can mean on the ground, and what communities and emergency services can do to prepare.

Amanda McKenzie, Climate Council CEO, will look at the bigger picture – how Australia can reduce the risks we face by cutting climate pollution, where she sees reason for hope, and what each of us can do.

There are things about the summers ahead that we can no longer avoid. There is also an enormous amount still within our power to change.

We hope you’ll join us for an honest conversation about both.

A moderated Q&A will follow the briefing.