Climate change will have effects “In cascade, combined and simultaneous” On the lives of Australians, a report published published on Monday September 15. This national assessment of climatic risks, prepared independently for the government, evokes heat waves, cyclones or even diseases.
The study also points out that more than 1.5 million people – out of the 27 million inhabitants of the country – live in areas that should be affected by the rise in waters by 2050. That same year, deaths in the metropolis of Sydney due to heat should jump by more than 400 % compared to the current level if the global increase in temperatures reaches 3 ° C, anticipates the report.
“We are experiencing climate change right now. It is no longer a forecast, a projection or a prediction. It is a reality that occurs live, and it is too late to avoid all the consequences ”warned the Australian climate minister Chris Bowen.
“Stop new polluting projects”
The repercussions are also promised to be heavy for the economy, warns the report. Real estate losses should amount to 611 billion Australian dollars (nearly 350 billion euros) by 2050. In the wild, many species specific to Australia will be forced to move, adapt or die in the face of the intensification of climate change.
The publication of the report sets the tone for the week during which Australia must unveil its next programs reduction objectives, an obligation included in the Paris climate agreements.
“We can choose a better future by reducing pollution more strongly and faster”said Amanda McKenzie, Managing Director of the NGO Climate Council, qualifying this report as “Terrifying”. “The first step is to set the most ambitious climate objective as possible for 2035 and stop the new polluting projects”she added.
A cliting question
In Australia, one of the biggest exporters of fossil fuels in the world, the question of climate change is politically divisive. The “climate wars”, internal political conflicts that have followed one another for years on the subject, are accused of having hampered progress in the reduction of carbon emissions, responsible for warming.
The Labor Government (Central Left) has strengthened its efforts in recent years to reduce the country’s emissions and develop renewable energies. But it continues to approve projects in the fossil fuels sector.
For example, the extension for forty years of the life of the North West Shelf project, a vast industrial complex made up of offshore platforms and treatment plants producing more than 10 million tonnes of liquefied gas and oil each year, has arranged the anger of indigenous groups and militants for the environment.
The transition for a greener future presents a set of challenges “Complicated and complex”said the Australian climate minister, saying that gas would remain a necessary rescue energy.
