The strong message from this review is that there is an urgent and rapidly growing demand for trustworthy, accessible and authoritative climate information. This demand comes from all levels of government, businesses in most sectors of the economy, communities and households. Government policy and regulation (such as climate-related risk disclosure obligations), commercial pressures and community expectations will accelerate this demand. Given the scale and scope of decisions informed by climate information, the economic costs of failing to meet this demand in an efficient and orderly way could be significant.

This review evaluated the performance of the Australian Climate Service (ACS) and its suitability to meet Australia's current and future climate information needs. This included:

• reviewing the performance of the ACS since its establishment, its governance arrangements, resourcing and capabilities
• assessing Australia's future climate information needs and the suitability of the ACS to deliver on them.

The review found there is an urgent and rapidly growing demand for climate and disaster risk information. The Australian Climate Service is unable to support this demand in its current form.

The final report makes 11 recommendations. These include:

• Transferring responsibility for emergency management support functions from the ACS to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
• Ensuring a future ACS is service-oriented with a focus on providing practical products and services to all Australians.
• Establishing a portal for climate products and services that builds over time and provides up-to-date climate information that is easy to understand.