Climate Council, 4 March 2019:
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Friday 8 March 2019
Twenty-eight climate scientists, academics & former heads of energy companies tell the world that Morrison and Co are lying to the Australian people
“Proud to be a signatory to this statement from @climatecouncil. Between us, we have devoted 600 years to this issue. Last week's announcements are not enough to get us to meet our lousy Paris Target. That target, by the way, isn't even nearly enough to ensure a safe climate.” [Tim Baxter, Twitter, 4 March 2019]
Climate Council, 4 March 2019:
Dozens of the country’s
leading climate and energy experts – including climate scientists, academics
and former heads of energy companies – have signed a joint statement stressing
that without further action Australia
will not meet its 2030 pollution reduction target.
Tuesday 5 March 2019
The graphs that expose Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's climate change policy propaganda
Australia has a monumental problem.
Since September 2013 the Australian Government, first under Liberal prime ministers Abbott and Turnbull and then under current Australian Prime Minster and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison, has failed to implement effective national climate change mitigation measures.
This has left the nation with an est. 695 million tonnes (or 2.9 billion tonnes) of greenhouse gas emissions it has to reduce/abate by 2021-2030 in order to meet its international obligations.
Ever since he successfully ousted the last Liberal prime minister in a 'palace coup' Morrison has been telling the world that this country will meet its Paris Agreement targets "at a canter" and that national greenhouse gas annual emissions are falling.
Both he and his ministers talk of greenhouse gas emission levels falling per capita or per head of population. All that means is that the Australian population is growing at a slightly faster rate than national emission levels are rising. It doesn't mean greenhouse gas emissions are falling.
On 25 February 2019 Morrison announced his Climate Solutions Package - mostly a rehash of old Liberal-Nationals climate policies and as yet unrealised infrastructure projects - which he rather misleadingly states will "reduce greenhouse gases across the economy".
After this 'solutions' initiatives announcement the Minister for Energy and Liberal MP for Hume Angus Taylor went on national television claiming Australia's national greenhouse gas emissions had fallen by "over 1 per cent" - omitting to point out that this quarter to quarter seasonally adjusted weather normalised change did not result in an overall decrease in total greenhouse gas emissions for the year to September 2018.
In August 2015 the then Abbott Government, in which Scott Morrison was a cabinet minister, also misspoke when it told the United Nations that its "direct action" plan was successful and that:
The target is a significant progression beyond Australia’s 2020 commitment to cut emissions by five per cent below 2000 levels (equivalent to 13 per cent below 2005 levels). The target approximately doubles Australia’s rate of emissions reductions, and significantly reduces emissions per capita and per unit of GDP, when compared to the 2020 target. Across a range of metrics, Australia’s target is comparable to the targets of other advanced economies. Against 2005 levels, Australia’s target represents projected cuts of 50 to 52 per cent in emissions per capita by 2030 and 64 to 65 per cent per unit of GDP by 2030. [my yellow highlighting]
For this to be a genuine reduction which will help alleviate the effects of climate change it means this 695 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions that are in the earth's atmosphere right now have to be removed by abatement action on Australia's part between 2019 and 2030.
At the United Nations 2018 Climate Action Summit (COP24) it was pointed out to all member countries that attempting to use old credits from the Kyoto Protocol as carryovers when accounting for ongoing emission rates will not actually bring down current global emissions levels.
However, the Morrison Government is using old carryover credits from the Labor Government years 2008-2012 to reduce Australia's own abatement commitment by est. 368 million tonnes - bringing it down to only a 328 million tonnes reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030. Less than half of what the Australian Government actually committed to under the Paris Agreement.
The federal Dept of Environment and Energy's own data gives a more honest picture of where Australia stands on bringing down greenhouse gas emissions since 2013 than does Morrison's dodgy accounting tricks.
4. Trend
emissions levels are inclusive of all sectors of the economy, including Land
Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF). Removing LULUCF from caluclations will result in higher trend levels.
|
Only three of the eight sectors in this graph show any real improvement since 1990 and even these become somewhat static after 2013.
|
When it comes to the year 2018 from 1 January to 30 September, the Financial
Review reported on 28 February 2019 that:
Increases in greenhouse
gas emissions from growing liquefied natural gas exports, although offset by
lower emissions from electricity, pushed Australia's overall carbon pollution
up by nearly 1 per cent in the year to September….
Greenhouse gas emissions
were up by 4.6 millon tonnes, or 0.9 per cent, in the year to September last
year to 536 million tonnes, according to the quarterly update of Australia's
National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
The gains from big
declines in emissions from the electricity sector (3.2 per cent) and
agriculture (3 per cent) were negated by the 5.8 per cent increase in mining
and manufacturing, especially LNG exports (up 19.7 per cent), steel production
(up 10 per cent) and aluminium production (up 5.5 per cent).
"Growth in LNG also
strongly impacted fugitive emissions due to the flaring and venting of methane
and carbon dioxide. An increase in 10 per cent in steel production in
particular affected industrial process emissions," the report said…..
The bottom line is that in September 2013 Australia's greenhouse gas emissions stood at 515.1 Mt of CO2-e, having fallen from a high of 617.5 Mt of CO2-e in March 2007.
However, emissions have steadily risen in the years following 2013 until in September 2016 they had reached 527.2 Mt of CO2-e, by September 2017 533.3 Mt of CO2-e, by March 2018 535.8 Mt of CO2-e and by September 2018 our national emissions were 536 Mt CO2-e.
No matter how many ways Morrison Government spokespersons attempt to present the figures, the fact remains that Australia's national greenhouse gas emissions began to fall steadily between 2007 and 2013 but once the Abbott Government removed the price on carbon and altered other Labor climate change policies they began to rise again and they are still rising.
To date the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has marched this country backwards towards national greenhouse gas emission levels not found since the end of 2012.
How much further will they send us back in time if they govern for another three years? Will the national emissions total in 2022 be in excess of 545 million tonnes? A higher national total than that of the year the Abbott Government promised the United Nations it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: September 2018 Incorporating emissions from the NEM up to December 2018 can be found here.
However, emissions have steadily risen in the years following 2013 until in September 2016 they had reached 527.2 Mt of CO2-e, by September 2017 533.3 Mt of CO2-e, by March 2018 535.8 Mt of CO2-e and by September 2018 our national emissions were 536 Mt CO2-e.
No matter how many ways Morrison Government spokespersons attempt to present the figures, the fact remains that Australia's national greenhouse gas emissions began to fall steadily between 2007 and 2013 but once the Abbott Government removed the price on carbon and altered other Labor climate change policies they began to rise again and they are still rising.
To date the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has marched this country backwards towards national greenhouse gas emission levels not found since the end of 2012.
How much further will they send us back in time if they govern for another three years? Will the national emissions total in 2022 be in excess of 545 million tonnes? A higher national total than that of the year the Abbott Government promised the United Nations it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: September 2018 Incorporating emissions from the NEM up to December 2018 can be found here.
Wednesday 27 February 2019
Saturday 23 February 2019
Quote of the Month
“Humanity, as a
species grounded in nature, will, in this century, pass through the narrow
corridor of its essence, and may not make it at all.” [Journalist
Guy Rundle writing in Crikey,
14 February 2019]
Labels:
climate change
Thursday 14 February 2019
How the National Party of Australia attempted to ruin Australia’s largest river system
IMAGE: Murray Darling Wetlands Working Group Ltd. |
Former Accountant and banker, Nationals MP for New England (NSW) Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce was deputy Prime Minister of Australia from 18.2.2016 to 27.10.2017 and again from 6.12.2017 to 26.2.2018. He was also Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources from 21.9.2015 to 27.10.2017 and returned as minister once more from 21.9.2015 to 27.10.2017.
This particular politician is likely
to go down in history as one of the worst leaders that the National Party of
Australia ever had.
The
Northern Daily Leader,
9 February 2019:
BARNABY Joyce’s actions
as water minister have been singled out and savaged in the royal
commission into the Murray Darling Basin Authority, the report
suggesting he ignored the law.
The report pointed
to an “ill-informed letter” from Mr Joyce to the South Australian
water minister, as testament to the government’s lack of “any genuine
commitment” to the goal of recovering 450 gigalitres of water for the
environment.
The Leader has
contacted Mr Joyce for an interview and is awaiting a response.
In the letter, Mr Joyce
said he couldn’t see the water being recovered without “causing negative social
and economic impacts to South Australian communities”.
“I cannot foresee [the
other state governments] agreeing that the additional 450GL of water can be delivered
without significant social and economic detriment,” he wrote.
The report said there
was “no reliable evidence” to support Mr Joyce’s claim.
This is what the
South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Royal
Commission Report’s Final
Report (released on 29 January 2019) stated in part:
For
a number of years neither the Commonwealth Government, nor New South Wales or
Victoria, have had any genuine commitment to recovering the so-called 450 GL of
upwater for enhanced environmental outcomes. The ill-informed letter from Mr
Barnaby Joyce when he was Water Minister to his South Australian counterpart
dated 17 November 2016 — written as though the actual definition of
socio-economic impact in the Basin Plan did not exist — is testament to this…..
On
commercial radio on 29 August 2018, Mr Joyce, the Commonwealth Government’s
Special Drought Envoy — not a member of the Executive Council or a Minister of the
State under either secs 62 or 64 of the Constitution respectively — suggested
that environmental water held by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder
(CEWH) should be used to ‘grow the fodder to keep the cattle alive’ during the
course of the drought. He suggested that if this was not lawful, then the
relevant legislation should be changed. This suggestion is not in the interests
of the people who live and work in the Basin, nor in the interests of the
broader Australian public, or that of the environment. It is contrary to the
objects and purposes of the Water Act and Basin Plan. It is against the
national interest. It has been rightly rejected by, amongst others, the MDBA
and the CEWH. Adaptation to the challenges of a warmer and drier climate will
require a vastly more sophisticated approach. That approach must be based on
proper scientific research and analysis, as well as a basic level of common
sense.
For
example, in a letter dated 17 November 2016 from the then Commonwealth Minister
for Agriculture and Water, Mr Barnaby Joyce, to the then South Australian
Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Mr Ian Hunter,
Minister Joyce said:
If it was
genuinely possible to put an additional 450 GL down the river without hurting
people, then none of us would have a problem with it. The reality is that it
will. South Australia’s default share of the 450 GL target is 36 GL. Does the
South Australian Government have a plan for where this water would come from
without causing negative social and economic impacts to South Australian
communities? I believe that we are heading into an unprotracted (sic) and
unsolvable stalemate, where the funding will stay on the books for a recovery
that will be impossible to make in accordance with the legislative requirements
— that the recovery must has (sic) positive or neutral social and economic
outcomes
… My main concern is this — just as you have an
understandable desire for one outcome, your colleagues in other states have an
equally understandable desire for another regardless of what side of the
political fence they are on. I cannot foresee them agreeing that the additional
450 GL of water can be delivered without significant social and economic
detriment. The hard conversation has to happen about how we resolve this
stalemate. I look forward to discussing it with you more at the Ministerial
Council.
There
is no reliable evidence before the Commission that would support the assertion
in that letter that recovery of an additional 450 GL of water would have
negative social and economic impacts, or that its consequence would be ‘hurting
people’ either economically, socially, or otherwise. Minister Joyce offered no
such evidence. Leaving that aside, Minister Joyce’s letter ignores the test of
social and economic neutrality in sec 7.17(2)(b) of the Basin Plan. That is no
trifling thing, as that section was (and still currently is) the law. The test
is satisfied by participation, not the concept of ‘hurting people’. Leaving
this also aside, the gist of the letter was such that the Commonwealth’s then
position seemed to be that the recovery of 450 GL of upwater for South
Australia’s environmental assets was unlikely….
Mr
Hooper spoke of a shift in attitude, upon the appointment of the former
Minister, Mr Barnaby Joyce, to the water portfolio, away from a holistic, whole
of Basin approach to a focus on specific sites, namely Dirranbandi, St George,
and Warren, and the economics of irrigated agriculture in those towns.
Mr
Hooper recalled asking the MDBA for a socio-economic assessment of Aboriginal
people in the Northern Basin to which the MDBA responded by offering to provide
a more limited socio-cultural survey.182 Despite meeting with the MDBA, NBAN
was unaware of the intention to reduce water recovery in the Northern Basin,
which was only revealed once the proposed amendments were publicly released.183
Mr Hooper could not recall any explanation of how the toolkit measures could
substitute for water so as to justify the 70 GL reduction in water to be
recovered…..
In
an interview with 2GB radio, the Commonwealth Government’s Special Drought
Envoy and former Water Resources Minister, Mr Barnaby Joyce, said:
a national emergency requires emergency power. We have
a large water resource owned by the government. It’s called the Commonwealth
Environmental Water holder and it’s used to water environmental assets. In a
national emergency, which is this drought, surely that water should be used to grow
the fodder to keep the cattle alive to keep the cash flow in the town. When
people say, ‘Oh well, the legislation won’t allow you to do that’. Well, change
the legislation, that’s what we have a parliament for.
National
Party once again proving that it is the party representing mining interests
Climate change denialism is alive and well in the National Party.....
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
9 February 2019:
A Nationals MP's claim
that the Land and Environment Court's decision to block a coal mine in his
electorate reflected an "ideological position" and "smacked of
judicial activism" has prompted a rival MP to accuse him of contempt of
court.
After the court on
Friday rejected Gloucester Resources' bid to open the
Rocky Hill mine on the Mid North Coast because of "climate change
impacts", Nationals MP for the Upper Hunter Michael Johnsen hopped on
2GB to vent his fury.
The show's host Chris
Kenny said: "Here you have a judge in a NSW land and environment court
saying that he's protecting the planet from global warming, from climate
change".
Mr Johnsen replied:
"They are taking an ideological position, again it smacks of judicial
activism, and it has nothing to do with the merits of the proposal itself and
I’m very, very disappointed."
Labels:
climate change,
mining,
rivers,
water wars,
water security
Sunday 10 February 2019
And now for some good news......
David Morris, CEO of EDO NSW: Our argument was based on science, economics and – we argued - the
proper application of the law. The climate contention as a ground for refusing
this mine was innovative; the first time climate change has been addressed this
way in an Australian court using the concept of a carbon budget as its basis.
Like so many great ideas – its strength was its
simplicity. While there was lots of necessary evidence and discussion about the
carbon budget, geopolitical climate policy and Australia’s legal framework for
climate change, ultimately our argument was simple: if you accept
the science, then the local legal framework compels you to refuse the mine
because it’s clearly not in the public interest to increase emissions.
As Professor Steffen said “it’s one atmosphere,
it’s one climate system, it’s one planet - and so we need to start thinking
more carefully about the net effect of wherever coal is burnt, or oil or gas…
The project’s contribution to cumulative climate change impacts means that its
approval would be inequitable for current and future generations”. [EDO NSW, media release, 8 February 2019]
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
8 February 2019:
When Planning
Minister Anthony Roberts intervened a year ago to give a coal miner
the unusual right to challenge its project's refusal in court, neither would
have countenanced Friday's outcome.
Instead of settling the
future of Gloucester Resources' controversial Rocky Hill coal mine near
Gloucester, the NSW Land and Environment Court just cast a cloud over coal mining
in general.
The miner had thought it
was merely challenging the Department of Planning's rejection of the mine's
impact on visual amenity in the bucolic valley around Gloucester.
Instead, the
Environmental Defenders Office, acting for residents opposed to the mine,
grabbed the opportunity to join the appeal.
In what EDO chief David
Morris describes as a "delicious irony", the court got to hear about
the project's detrimental impact on climate change and the town's social fabric
- despite Gloucester Resources arguing such intervention would be a
"sideshow and a distraction".
Future generations will
wonder why it took so long for any court in the land to hear such evidence when
considering a coal mine project.
But Justice Brian
Preston didn't just allow the EDO to provide expert evidence of the role
greenhouse gas emissions play in driving climate change. He also accepted it as
part of the critical reasons to reject the mine. "The decision forms part
of what
is a growing trend around the world on using litigation to fight
climate change," Martijn Wilder, a prominent climate lawyer from
Baker & McKenzie, says. "While early on some of this litigation was
not successful, increasingly it is."
Gloucester
Resources Limited v Minister for Planning [2019] NSWLEC 7, 8 February 2019 judgment here.
Labels:
Berejiklian Government,
climate change,
coal,
court,
law,
mining,
New South Wales
Saturday 2 February 2019
Tweets of the Week
The heat is so extreme in Australia that roads are literally melting, bats are falling from trees, and over 1 million fish have dies to the extreme temperatures.— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) January 29, 2019
The climate crisis is here, the question is will we do what it takes to address it.#ActOnClimate pic.twitter.com/rY79xDOeES
Labels:
climate change,
climate change denialists
Friday 1 February 2019
Scott Morrison and his cronies want to buy your vote ahead of the May 2019 Australian federal election
Despite there being a growing urgency to invest in the full range
of climate change mitigation measures, in the face of evidence
that it is going to take billions of dollars to step back from the developing
environmental, social and economic disaster developing in the Murray-Darling
Basin, regardless of constant cost cutting in the welfare
sector leading to a fall in services for older Australians and those
with disabilities, while all the while failing to confront a growing
public debt which now stands at est. 679.5 billion, the Morrison
Lib-Nats Coalition Government intends to try and buy votes ahead of
the May 2019 federal election.
Brisbane
Times, 28
January 2019:
The Morrison government
is now more focused on protecting its electoral chances than the nation's
finances with claims it is going on a pre-poll spending spree based on a
short-term boost in tax collections.
Deloitte Access
Economics said in a quarterly report out on Tuesday that Scott Morrison is
looking to buy back disappointed voters, with the government sitting on $9.2
billion worth of tax cuts and handouts that were included in the December
mid-year budget update but not announced.
Deloitte Access partner
Chris Richardson said the government had promised $16 billion in extra spending
and tax cuts in the past six months, the biggest short-term spend by a
government since Kevin Rudd in 2009 in the depths of the global financial
crisis.
He said with the budget
in a reasonable condition on the back of strong global growth and a surge in
company tax profits, the Morrison government had made a decision to woo back
voters with taxpayers' cash.
"Of late, the
government has been busily taking decisions that add to spending and cut taxes,
thereby worsening the bottom line rather than repairing it," he said.
"After all, they've
got the dollars to do it, they're behind in the polls and the election is just
around the corner.
"That powerful
combination of motive and opportunity means that the government's focus has
shifted to shoring up its electoral standing rather than shoring up the
nation's finances."
News.com.au, 24 January 2019;
Pensioners and some
families could receive one-off cash payments from the Morrison government in a
pre-election sweetener.
Senior advisers are
looking at two one-off payments that could be included in the April 2 budget,
the Australian Financial Review reported on Thursday.
If the government
decides to go ahead with the plan, the payments could be distributed before the
federal election, which is due by mid-May.
The first option is a
one off handout to age pensioners and the second is a cash injection for
families.
It’s believed the single
payments would be aimed at luring those who won’t directly benefit from the
Coalition’s $144 billion personal income tax cuts being phased in over the next
six years.
Monday 28 January 2019
Climate change denialism is alive and apparently thriving in 2019
One would
expect this dodgy co-sponsorship from the likes of Facebook Inc, but Google and
Microsoft do surprise.
Mother Jones, 22 January 2019:
Google, Facebook, and
Microsoft have publicly acknowledged the dangers of global warming, but last
week they all sponsored a conference that promoted climate change
denial to young libertarians.
All three tech companies
were sponsors of LibertyCon,
the annual convention of the libertarian group Students for Liberty, which took
place in Washington, DC. Google was a platinum sponsor, ponying up $25,000, and
Facebook and Microsoft each contributed $10,000 as gold sponsors. The donations
put the tech companies in the top tier of the event’s backers. But the
donations also put the firms in company with some of the event’s other
sponsors, which included three groups known for their work attacking climate
change science and trying to undermine efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Among the most notable
was the CO2 Coalition, a group founded in 2015 to spread
the “good news” about a greenhouse gas whose increase in the atmosphere is
linked to potentially catastrophic climate change. The coalition is funded by conservative foundations that have backed other climate
change denial efforts. These include the Mercer Family Foundation, which
in recent years has donated hundreds of thousands of
dollars to
right-wing think tanks engaged in climate change denialism, and the
Charles Koch Institute, the charitable arm of one of the brothers behind Koch
Industries, the oil and gas behemoth.
In the LibertyCon
exhibit hall, the CO2 Coalition handed out brochures that said its goal is to
“explain how our lives and our planet Earth will be improved by additional
atmospheric carbon dioxide.” One brochure claimed that “more carbon
dioxide will help everyone, including future generations of our families” and
that the “recent increase in CO2 levels has had a measurable, positive effect
on plant life,” apparently because the greenhouse gas will make plants grow
faster.
In a Saturday
presentation, Caleb Rossiter, a retired statistics professor and a
member of the coalition, gave a presentation titled “Let’s Talk About Not
Talking: Should There Be ‘No Debate’ that Industrial Carbon Dioxide is Causing
Climate Catastrophe?” In his presentation, Rossiter told the assembled students
that the impact of climate change on weather patterns has been vastly
exaggerated. “There has been no increase in storms, in intensity or frequency,”
he said. “The data don’t show a worrisome trend.”
He insisted that when he
hears the news that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising, “I’m
cheering!” That’s because, he said, carbon dioxide “is a fertilizer” that has
made Africa greener and increased food production there, reducing human misery.
Rossiter also claimed
that carbon dioxide emissions correlate with wealth and that the greenhouse gas
“improves life expectancy” because poor countries that start burning fossil
fuels have a more consistent power supply and can then clean up their water.
“I’m happy when carbon dioxide is up, because it means poverty is down,” he
declared.
“I come not to bury your
carbon but to praise it,” he concluded.....
Wednesday 23 January 2019
Australian Water Wars 2019: how NSW rivers were running on 22 January
The news cycle is such that even the dire straits the Murray Darling Basin finds itself in, with regard to environmental, cultural and township water flow security, is already fading into the background.
If we let it do so then it will be business as usual for the Federal, Queensland, New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian governments and, it is business as usual which is causing an ecological crisis in Basin waterways.
This is a snapshot of an interactive map supplied by NSW Water showing river flows on Tuesday 22 January 2019.
Every red marker against a river or section of river indicates that at that point the flow was less than 20 per cent of the natural flow.
You will note that even the coastal rivers of Northern NSW are running at less than 20 per cent of their natural flow.
Along the length of the Darling/Barka River many points like Brewarrina, Bourke and Wilcannia recorded zero natural flow passing on 22 January.
This was also a day when land surface temperatures were still uncomfortably high, with parts of the Murray-Darling Basin predicted to reach temperatures of 42-45+ Celsius.
Remind your local MP that they still need to stand up and be counted when it comes to legislating measures to mitigate climate change and need to be persistent in demanding their political parties bite the bullet on water management reform.
Sunday 23 December 2018
Australia 2018: State of the Climate
Australian Bureau
of Meteorology, State of the Climate 2018,
December 2018:
“Australia's
weather and climate are changing in response to a warming global climate. Australia
has warmed just over 1 °C since 1910, with most warming since 1950. This
warming has seen an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events and
increased the severity of drought conditions during periods of below-average
rainfall. Eight of Australia’s top ten warmest years on record have occurred
since 2005.
The
year-to-year changes in Australia’s climate are mostly associated with natural
climate variability such as El Niño and La Niña in the tropical Pacific Ocean
and phases of the Indian Ocean Dipole in the Indian Ocean. This natural
variability now occurs on top of the warming trend, which can modify the impact
of these natural drivers on the Australian climate.
Increases in
temperature are observed across Australia in all seasons with both day and
night-time temperatures showing warming. The shift to a warmer climate in
Australia is accompanied by more extreme daily heat events. Record-warm monthly
and seasonal temperatures have been observed in recent years, made more likely
by climate change.”
Report
at a glance
The Bureau of
Meteorology and CSIRO play an important role in monitoring, analysing and
communicating observed changes in Australia's climate.
This fifth,
biennial State of the Climate report draws on the latest monitoring, science
and projection information to describe variability and changes in Australia’s
climate. Observations and climate modelling paint a consistent picture of
ongoing, long term climate change interacting with underlying natural
variability.
These changes
affect many Australians, particularly the changes associated with increases in
the frequency or intensity of heat events, fire weather and drought. Australia
will need to plan for and adapt to some level of climate change. This report is
a synthesis of the science informing our understanding of climate in Australia
and includes new information about Australia’s climate of the past, present and
future. The science underpinning this report will help inform a range of
economic, environmental and social decision-making and local vulnerability
assessments, by government, industry and communities.
Key points
Australia
·
Australia's climate has warmed just over 1 °C since 1910
leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events.
·
Oceans around Australia have warmed by around 1 °C
since 1910, contributing to longer and more frequent marine heatwaves.
·
Sea levels are rising around Australia, increasing the risk of
inundation.
·
The oceans around Australia are acidifying (the pH is decreasing).
·
April to October rainfall has decreased in the southwest of
Australia. Across the same region May–July rainfall has seen the largest
decrease, by around 20 per cent since 1970.
·
There has been a decline of around 11 per cent in April–October
rainfall in the southeast of Australia since the late 1990s.
·
Rainfall has increased across parts of northern Australia since
the 1970s.
·
Streamflow has decreased across southern Australia. Streamflow has
increased in northern Australia where rainfall has increased.
·
There has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather, and
in the length of the fire season, across large parts of Australia.
Global
·
Concentrations of all the major long-lived greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere continue to increase, with carbon dioxide (CO2)
concentrations rising above 400 ppm since 2016 and the CO2 equivalent
(CO2-e) of all gases reaching 500 ppm for the first time in at
least 800,000 years.
·
Emissions from fossil fuels continue to increase and are the main
contributor to the observed growth in atmospheric CO2.
·
The world’s oceans, especially in the southern hemisphere, are
taking up more than 90 per cent of the extra energy stored by the planet as a
result of enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations.
·
Global sea level has risen by over 20 cm since 1880, and the
rate has been accelerating in recent decades.
·
Globally averaged air temperature has warmed by over 1 °C
since records began in 1850, and each of the last four decades has been
warmer than the previous one.
Future
Australia is
projected to experience:
·
Further increases in sea and air temperatures, with more hot days
and marine heatwaves, and fewer cool extremes.
·
Further sea level rise and ocean acidification.
·
Decreases in rainfall across southern Australia with more time in
drought, but an increase in intense heavy rainfall throughout Australia.
Labels:
Australia,
BOM,
climate change,
CSIRO
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