Climate Change Initiatives

By harnessing its large range of capabilities, the WIC will develop and deliver innovative solutions to enable the wine industry across the whole value chain to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

To fast track the development, validation and adoption of innovative solutions the WIC partners will collaborate with other agencies on a program and project basis.

The WIC will focus in the following areas to provide tools and techniques that will enable the grape and wine industry to meet the climate and market challenges. Some of the tools and techniques will be able to be utilised in a range of primary industries.

Adapting to a Changing Climate

Within the Vineyard

• Techniques to adapt to effect of reduced water supply and rising temperatures on grapevine performance and grape quality
• Methods to manage grape composition under climate extremes
• Management of wine grape yield variation due to climate change
• Effective management of nitrogen fertiliser use, pests, diseases and weeds
• Management of grapevine growth, production and grape quality with increasing CO2 levels
• Model potential adaptive management strategies and impacts on grape varieties and wine style
• Selection criteria for potential new rootstocks and grape varieties

At the Winery

• Techniques for maintaining wine composition, quality and style from grapes grown under changed climate conditions
• Improved capacity to manage the production of wine made from grapes grown in a drier, warmer and more variable climate to meet market demand and consumer preference
• Enhanced capacity and capability to produce wine styles suited to emerging markets and changing consumer preferences
• Tools to assist in improving the cost-effective and sustainable production of wine
• Model industry capacity requirements and develop techniques to manage vintage compression and a shift in ripening times

Regional and Wine Style Impacts

• Model the impact of climate change on grape varieties and wine styles across current and potential regions

Managing Emissions

• Tools to undertake life cycle assessments of carbon, nitrogen etc and manage emissions
• Techniques to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and nitrous oxides) across the whole production chain
• Techniques to improve the industry's ability to comply with regulatory requirements and respond to changing market demands
• Integration of greenhouse emission management with efficient and effective grape and wine production

Download Climate Change and the Australian Wine Industry (pdf 1mb)