Face of Nation : News that Australia has become renown for lack of action on climate change has been met with embarrassment by environmental advocates and voters.
Australia has less than three years to form a coherent, long-term plan to tackle climate change or the effects could be disastrous, a leading expert says.
Internationally renowned climate scientist Will Steffen says it will be impossible to limit the damage caused by rising temperatures and sea levels if Australia fails to act by 2020.
“It would be virtually impossible to cap at (a rise in) two degrees Celsius… we estimate that could mean somewhere around 15 metres in terms of rising sea levels,” Prof Steffen told reporters on Thursday.
Prof Steffen believes such a rise would take place over several centuries with sea levels increasing by about two metres every 100 years.
“So the argument is, at that pace, can you build infrastructure fast enough to provide for higher sea levels,” he said.
His warning comes as the Climate Council released a report on Thursday labelling Australia a ‘climate laggard’ that lacked a coherent, long-term plan to tackle climate change.
Its release comes three-quarters of the way through what has been described as the ‘critical decade’ of 2010-2020 by climate experts and amid an ongoing debate on energy policy by the major political parties in Australia.
Climate Council chief executive officer Amanda McKenzie said Australia had yet to develop a unified approach to reduce emissions despite the country being vulnerable to worsening heatwaves, droughts, coral bleaching and rising sea levels.
“This is a critical warning that the window of opportunity for the federal government to tackle climate change is closing,” Ms McKenzie said.
The new report card on Australia’s climate change commitments has Australians thinking the government and everyday people could do more to help.
On the streets of Sydney, a mother with a young son voiced anger over an issue they say the federal government is ignoring.
“I think we’ve had time to do something about it and put things into place and it’s becoming much more critical now. I’m starting to feel really angry about it,” she told SBS News
While another young man at Bondi Beach pinned his hopes on younger Australians who want to make a difference.
“I think the next generation is probably the key. Kids are caring more about the environment now so my hope is that the next 20 years will be a different scene,” he said.
In its report, the Climate Council detailed five key recommendations for Australia to help fight climate change including a call for the major parties to adopt a unified approach to tackling climate change that includes embracing renewable energy sources.
The council also calls on the government to target net zero emissions by the mid-2040s, revitalise the Climate Change Authority, and give money to the states and territories to accelerate their own climate change plans.
Under the government’s new energy policy released in October, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ditched Chief Scientist Alan Finkel’s proposal to have a clean energy target.
Instead, energy retailers would need to meet guarantees on reliability and emissions – but how they do it would be up to them.Labor remains committed to a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.
