Victorian surf club is under threat as climate change eats away at the coast As world leaders and climate scientists in New York and Monaco warn that the oceans are warming and rising much faster than expected, Victoria’s coastal communities are already grappling with surging seas and a threat to their way of life.At Inverloch,, locals are desperately trying to defend the local surf life-saving club from erosion that has pushed the shore line back a remarkable 50 metres in seven years.Since January, the ocean has encroached 20 metres more on the beach, as truckloads of imported sand and a "wet" sand fence have failed to hold back the tides.

While erosion is part of the natural cycle of shifting sand, the Bass Coast shire is in no doubt the erosion has been caused mainly by climate change. “Our council accepts that climate change is a real thing,” says Bass Coast mayor Brett Tessari. “The impact in our area is horrific. The surf club is in danger.”

Now at this Australian surf beach, the council and state government are looking at more dramatic solutions to save the beach and surf lifesaving club by using special sandbags and, possibly, a rockwall.Inverloch is trying to defend human assets like the surf club without destroying the beach it watches over.But if the world’s climate scientists are right, saving the surf club will be just the first of many, and much bigger, challenges in coastal South Gippsland.On Wednesday the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC ) warned that inaction on climate change would likely result in sea level rise of 1.1 metres by 2100 – Without action, the seas will five metres higher by 2300.Experts say the Southern Ocean, including around Victoria, will be affected by the combination of warming water and rising sea levels as well as increased wave heights and more intense storm activity. Even if global warming is kept well below 2 degrees in, the IPCC warns that oceans and melting sea ice glaciers will raise sea levels by 30 to 60 centimetres by 2100.The history Inverloch help make the IPCC’s dire warnings a little more real.In the sloping green paddocks inland from the beach is a ridge that scientists and locals say is an old coastline. It runs from the area known as Flat Rocks, south west of Inverloch, through the middle of town.University of Melbourne Professor, David Kennedy, says it is likely this ridge was the coastline about 4000 to 6000 years ago, when global temperatures were about 1 to 2 degrees higher than now.Professor Kennedy says the old coastline is a marker of where the sea could rise to under business as usual scenarios for global warming and rising sea levels. “That sea level height would bring us back to where we were 4000 or 5000 years ago,” he says.

The ridge is a reminder of the challenges for governments and coastal communities. Hundreds of homes, as well as shops, parks and roads are at risk of erosion and rising sea levels.