Watch now: A Fearless Conversation on the threat of climate change in South Australia

The Fearless Conversations panel tackles the threat of climate change – how heatwaves and rising sea levels will affect Adelaide, and what the answers might be. Watch it here.

Rising sea levels will lead to catastrophic damage in South Australia, more than doubling the risk of flooding and bushfires in the state over the next 30 years, a leading oceanographer says.

Dr Graziela Miot da Silva, a senior lecturer at Flinders University’s College of Science and Engineering, said the damage caused by the rising sea level poses a “serious threat”.

“South Australia’s sea level has been rising at a faster rate than the global average – we think it’s about 4.5mm per year,” she said.

“We are going to face a serious threat as we move forward.

“I believe South Australia is projected to see a 50cm sea level rise by the mid-century (since the early 1900s), which is pretty significant. It means Adelaide will more than double its risk of flooding.”

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Dr da Silva was speaking during this week’s The Advertiser and Flinders University Fearless Conversations forum, discussing the topic of climate science. It is the seventh in the 2022 series, which brings together leading voices in roundtable discussions about the big issues facing the state.

Hosted by 7News journalist Jane Doyle, the panel also included Peter Nattrass, manager, Future Industries at Department for Energy and Mining; Cassandra Star, associate professor at Flinders University’s College of Business, Government and Law; and Malcolm Leask, owner of Hither & Yon winery in McLaren Vale.

Dr da Silva pointed to projections by the Goyder Institute which predict South Australia will experience hotter and drier days.

“(This will lead to) more bushfires, especially in winter and spring which will affect crops and our energy use,” she said.

Associate Professor Star welcomed the federal government’s new climate change bill, which is committed to a 40 per cent emissions reduction by 2030.

“It delivers, for the first time in decades, some legislation on which it provides certainty for business, for industry and for the community about the government’s direction on climate change,” she said.

Mr Nattrass posed the question of how South Australia can move away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

“At the end of the day what we need as an economy to prosper is energy at the right price. There’s the economic cost but you also have to look at the environmental impacts,” he said.

Mr Leask, whose family-owned business practices sustainable farming, pointed to the need for ownership of climate change.

“We have to acknowledge that this is not a planet or science problem, it’s a human problem,” he said.

Other issues canvassed ­included the social fallout of flooding, the need for more investment in technology and education, and water buybacks to sustain the River Murray.

Register for Fearless Conversations at flinders.edu/fearless/conversations