Getting down to the business of evolving Australia's climate policy

Scorched by unprecedented bushfires, our nation badly needs a global solution to climate change. Evolving emissions policy, as the Prime Minister has suggested, can deliver a more ambitious, durable and trade-neutral approach, and get investment flowing to the industry and the infrastructure we need for a prosperous future. Success requires clarity about what we’re trying to do, and smart policy design that suits the enduring needs of the community and industry.

The fire threat will become inescapably worse in a warming climate,
but what if global temperatures rise by 3C rather than the target of 1.5C?

Many fear that the recent fires are the "new normal". The truth seems to be both better and worse than that. The specific circumstances that produced the most dire bushfire season in recorded Australian history won’t recur every year. But an underlying increase in average temperatures and shift in rainfall patterns has made more severe bushfires more likely. That shift is guaranteed to deteriorate.

Australia is currently dealing with a 1C increase in global average temperatures over pre-industrial levels. The goal of the Paris Agreement is to keep the total increase to no more than 1.5C – with significantly greater impacts than today and requiring difficult, costly adaptation. But the initial set of commitments that nations have made under Paris puts us on course for 3C or more.

Global central banks say that would seriously threaten the world economy. It is absolutely true that Australia (which accounted for 1.1 per cent of global emissions in 2016) can’t halt climate change alone. Nor can China (23.5 per cent), the United States (11.8 per cent) or the European Union (7.3 per cent). Collectively, emitters of Australia’s size or smaller account for more than 30 per cent.

Read the opinion piece from The Sydney Morning Herald by Innes Willox - “Getting down to the business of evolving Australia's climate policy.”