To keep risks from climate change at an acceptable level it has been accepted that there is the need to dramatically reduce net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With a high growth rate of population, this is challenging for Australia as at present it relies strongly on GHG-intensive energy sources.  There are close interconnections between energy, water and carbon, for instance, energy systems use water and water systems use energy, and current energy generation is GHG-intensive. As result, almost any change in one of these domains has impacts for the other two. Therefore, it is rational to take an integrated pathway for reducing GHG emissions, lowering demand, while keeping environmental quality and continually improving living standards.

Australia is a highly urbanised country, implying that a sustainable consumption approach in the urban nexus of energy and water is crucial to our future. In Australia, the residential sector is considered as one of the fastest growing GHG emission sources and considered as the ‘lowest hanging fruit’ for carbon mitigation. This study presents an integrated approach to simulate the nexus of energy and water consumption and their related GHG emissions for individual households and housing stock in Australia under current and future climate change conditions. The initial results show there are significant reduction (up to 60%) in indoor water consumption and related GHG emissions if the existing appliances and fixtures are updated to 3 stars.  The climate change adaptation pathways in a more resilient approach for some Australian cities are also investigated.