Fires threaten climate research underpinning $90bn wine industry

University of Adelaide offers assistance to wine producers affected by fires in South Australia

Australia’s wine industry research programmes could take years to recover from the loss of vineyard trial sites and monitoring equipment in fires that swept across the Adelaide Hills in South Australia in late December.

Many projects involved developing grape varieties to adapt to climate change as droughts become more frequent across the state. Australia’s wine industry has funded climate change adaptation research for more than two decades and has climate research partnerships with wine industry organisations in France and California.