STATE OF THE CLIMATE REPORT ANOTHER WAKE UP CALL

Media Release.

Mark Butler M.P.

Shadow Minister for 

Climate Change and Energy

Date:  27 October 2016

Today, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and CSIRO released their biennial State of the Climate report. The facts speak for themselves:

• Australia's climate has warmed in both mean surface air temperature and surrounding sea surface temperature by around 1 °C since 1910.
• There has been an increase in extreme fire weather, and a longer fire season, across large parts of Australia since the 1970s.
• May–July rainfall has reduced by around 19 per cent since 1970 in the southwest of Australia.
• Sea levels have risen around Australia. The rise in mean sea level amplifies the effects of high tides and storm surges.

The extent to which the climate will change later in the century depends on the level of emissions now and into the future.

Emissions started to rise again last year, and the Government’s own projections from May confirmed that they will be three per cent higher than 2000 levels in 2020.

 If we are to meet our obligations under the Paris Agreements, and stop our country from suffering devastating climate change, we need a government that is willing to acknowledge the challenge and create good policy.

The Government’s policies will not constrain or reduce emissions to 2020, let alone 2030.

Both the Emissions Reduction Fund and Renewable Energy Target finish in 2020. What happens after that?

It’s the question that the international community and the people of Australia are asking the Turnbull Government.

The time for action is now. Our emissions are growing daily, each year is getting hotter, bushfires are more frequent, and oceans are rising.

We need strong policy but the Turnbull Government continues to play the waiting game with Australia’s future.