The ACT government has contracted engineering firm AECOM to undertake a climate change risk assessment for government services in Canberra up until 2045.

Work on the more than $170,000 contract began at the end of August, with a report expected to be finalised by the end of the year.

However, the findings of the risk assessment are not expected to be made public.

While the key findings will be included in an updated territory-wide risk assessment, the full report will be considered a cabinet document and won't be publicly released.

Contract documents seen by The Canberra Times have shown the risk assessment will outline at least two climate change scenarios that the work will be based off.

One of those will include a high-emissions scenario during a 25-year time period until 2045.

The documents said the risk assessment was to understand how services operated by the government would be able to cope with climate change conditions, such as rising temperatures and more frequent natural disasters.

"The ACT government is continuously considering how its own decision-making and operations can better protect Canberrans and enable them to adapt and build resilience to climate change across the community, environment and economy," the contract documents said.

"The impacts of climate change are already being experienced in the ACT, whether it be increases in minimum and maximum temperatures, or recent unprecedented climate-related events."

The risk assessment comes off the back of a report issued by Deloitte Access Economics in 2020, which showed there would be a $3.4 trillion loss in GDP if climate change was unchecked.

The risk assessment is also expected to identify not only how current systems would cope with climate change, but also what new services would also be required as a result of rising temperatures.

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An ACT government spokeswoman said the assessment would cover areas such as how services would be delivered, how businesses would be able to continue and how government-owned assets would handle climate change.

"The ACT government aims to identify priority area actions to manage risks from the changing climate," the spokeswoman said.

"This information will allow the ACT government to manage and treat emerging risks while identifying information gaps."

The spokeswoman said the new risk assessment would coincide with an update to the territory wide risk assessment, which examined emergency risks to the ACT.

It's not the first time the territory government has looked at future climate risk in Canberra.

The new assessment comes after a 2012 study was carried out to see how infrastructure in the ACT would be vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

"The climate risk assessment will build on existing climate change strategies already in place, with a stronger internal focus around improving adaptation and resilience across ACT government operations," the government spokeswoman said.

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