On Monday, when the government released its National Climate Risk Assessment, Bowen was careful to emphasise that the higher the temperature went, the more severe the impacts.
“As this report makes clear, the difference in terms of impact between 1.5 and 2 degrees of warming, let alone 3, is very real for Australia,” said Bowen.
Heat would have a dire effect on human health, with deaths in Melbourne surging from 66 per year at 1.5 degrees, to 125 at 2 degrees and 259 at 3 degrees. In Sydney, they would jump from 102 to 190 and 444.
“The future of Australia’s reefs, like the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo, is in our hands. A baseline target of 62 per cent is letting these natural wonders slip through our fingers,” Australian Marine Conservation Society chief Paul Gamblin said after the announcement.
“Today’s 2035 target is on track with global warming of over 2 degrees, which will likely lead to the loss of 99 per cent of the world’s coral reefs.”
Loading
For Australians, the news might be even worse than the risk assessment and target suggest.
When the 250 scientists and experts involved in the risk assessment began their work, it was generally accepted that the world had already warmed on average by 1.2 degrees. But since the large land masses heat faster than the global average because oceans lower temperatures, Australia is warming faster than the global average.
While the lower Paris target is 1.5 degrees, Australia has already hit that level. Should the world warm to 2 degrees, the Australian land mass would hit 3 degrees, Hare said.
This is why it is so often said that Australia has more to lose from runaway climate change, and more to gain from ambitious action.
Loading
Speaking after the announcement, Richie Merzian, a former climate negotiator for Australia who serves as chief executive of the Clean Energy Investor Group, said the government’s target range would be enough to reassure investors to keep ploughing ahead with the transition of the energy sector.
It is also probably enough for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Bowen to signal to their counterparts at upcoming climate talks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and then at COP negotiations in Brazil that Australia is still engaged in the effort.
“It is right in the middle of the pack for an OECD economy,” Merzian said.
