Tony Abbott unmoved as UN report finds climate change happening all over the world BERNARD HUMPHREYS AND KATRINA STOKES THE ADVERTISER MARCH 31, 2014 8:47PM PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has played down a United Nations climate report that predicts a dire future for the Murray-Darling Basin and the Great Barrier Reef, saying that “Australia is a land of drought and flooding rains, always has been and always will be”. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says governments around the world can still avoid the worst of forecast droughts, floods and bushfires, but Mr Abbott says he remains reluctant to link extreme weather events to climate change. “The CSIRO, amongst many other reputable scientific organisations, has cautioned against attributing any particularly weather event to man-made climate change,’ he said in response to the report while in Perth. “Australia is a land of droughts and flooding rains, always has been, always will be,’’ he said. He said his government was committed to a reduction carbon emissions, however. Demonstrators participate in a silence protest in front of a conference hall where the In Demonstrators participate in a silence protest in front of a conference hall where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change met near Tokyo. Picture: AP Source: AP The CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology have this year both warned that Australia’s climate will continue to warm, bringing more extreme heat and longer fire seasons. The UN has made disturbing predictions that water shortages will increasingly lead to civil unrest and famine around the planet as food production is hit by drought. It says agricultural production in the Murray-Darling Basin, where up to 40 per cent of the nation’s food is grown, is under threat, and has repeated the warning that rising ocean temperatures are a direct and urgent threat to the Great Barrier Reef. The Conservation Council of South Australia says the report again highlights the local threat of global warming and chief executive Craig Wilkins says that “we cannot afford to wait for the worst, we must take effective action to reduce the risks of climate change now”. “With every IPCC report, the confidence of leading climate scientists in their modelling increases, as well as the urgency of their warnings,” he said. World Meteorological Organisation secretary general Michel Jarraud, right, chats with Int World Meteorological Organisation secretary general Michel Jarraud, right, chats with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri before a press conference. Picture: AFP Source: AFP The report says Australia will continue to experience an increased risk of heat extremes, bushfires, rising sea levels and extreme rainfall if nothing is done. Produced by 309 scientific authors and editors from 70 countries, The Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability report confirms that “human interference with climate system is occurring” and says it is clear that the impacts of climate change are already here. In southern Australia, these include longer and more intense heatwaves and more severare rain and flood events. The report specifically refers to Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin Plan, but says that while more efficient water use, allocation and trading would increase the resilience of systems in the short term, they could not be expected to prevent significant reductions in agricultural production. Climate Council Professor Lesley Hughes, one of the report’s lead authors, said reduction of the risks of water shortages, bushfire weather, extreme heatwaves, loss of biodiversity and decreased agricultural production would depend on how rapidly Australia responded to the climate change challenge. “This is the critical decade to tackle the cause of climate change and stabilise the climate to avert the most serious risks,” she said.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 11:42:41 +0000
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