Australia Must Become Environmental Leader, Says Report

A interim report commissioned by now-Prime Minister Rudd prior to his appointment last year has announced that Australia must become a world leader in the fight against climate change if it is to survive. Released in Adelaide, last Thursday, and compiled by Garnaut Climate Change Review, the report focuses their recommendations on the fact that Australia is highly vulnerable to the effects of global warming.

“Australia would be a big loser – possibly the biggest loser among developed nations – from unmitigated climate change,” says report author Ross Garnaut, an economist at the Australian National University, and former Australian ambassador to China.

The report lays out three factors that contribute towards Australia’s sensitivity. First of all, and most obvious to the majority in the world, is our already notoriously hot, dry and crazy-assed variable weather.

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However maybe more importantly, if not more obviously, is our dependency on agriculture. I have mentioned over the past six months the farms that have been closed up due to increasing and lengthening drought conditions in Australia. If a change is not just around the corner, more of our farms will go belly-up, and see one of our largest industries take a major hit.

There are other factors listed, one focusing on our proximity and economic ties to the surrounding developing countries of Asia and the Pacific – all of which are highly susceptible to climate change and its ill effects – but the first two cover much of the problem.

But this report is a good thing for Australia; hopefully something that will wake us up a bit. Barry Brook, director of the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability at the University of Adelaide, described the report as a significant turnabout for Australia. He also noted how long it took for us to ratify the Kyoto protocol, but how little it has actually done in terms of change.

“We’ve gone from being a non-ratifying partner of the Kyoto protocol, to ratifying Kyoto but not committing to short-term targets and only committing to loose long-term targets, to discussing cuts of 90% by 2050,” he says.

Australia has only committed to reducing our carbon emissions by 60% of 2000 levels by 2050, and only on the basis that other developed nations follow suit. And while European Union targets aim for 60% to 80% reductions on 1990 levels by 2050 – a much more significant commitment – the report says that Australia must make more significant promises.

The report also calls on governments to set an interim target for 2020, in lieu of similar decisions made by other developed countries. But Australian officials are being stereotypically slow to understand the necessities involved. Penny Wong, Australia’s minister for climate change and water, has been significantly non-committal. She says that the Australian government is going to wait for the completed report before making any targets for 2020.

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