The 2015 climate projections from CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology are undoubtedly the most comprehensive projections and related communication products ever provided for Australia. However, their utility at a regional scale is limited.

The Victorian Government commissioned CSIRO to prepare regional climate projections for Victoria. Simultaneously, they sought to have these projections and related information conveyed in a way that informed people about their changing climate, explained the likely impacts of climate change and described how best to adapt.

The Victorian Government worked with consultants to prepare communication products that met this challenge by developing content that:

• has a clear, positive, empowering message and narrative
• provides a clear regional context in terms of climate, economic and demographic information
• highlights regional impacts of a changing climate
• showcases real examples of climate-ready actions that are already under way.

The communication products cater for the many ways that people interpret information by incorporating:

• clear, plain English and textual signposts
• pictograms and infographics to provide clear visual cues and summaries
• different styles of graphs and tables to convey data.

Throughout the process, content development was refined by feedback from stakeholders and scientists to ensure that the information was accessible and useable, but also that the underlying science was not lost in translation.

In this presentation we will provide an overview of the development process for these products, illustrate their main communication features and explain why they are so effective, and provide a list of five key considerations for climate-ready communication.