ABC
DAVID MARK: The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says human health in Australia is already being affected by climate change. It says it's taking into account the most recent scientific evidence. The AMA's president, Professor Brian Owler, is urging the Government to show leadership on the issue at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris in December. Lucy Carter reports.
LUCY CARTER: The Australian Medical Association has revised its official position on climate change for the first time since 2008. AMA president Brian Owler says the potential impacts on the health of Australians are dire.
BRIAN OWLER: There will be consequences from changing climate particularly in relation to the distribution patterns of diseases, particularly those tropical diseases which are likely to start to appear more and more in the southern areas of Australia as the climate warms. And, this not only has effects on humans, particularly with respect to borne diseases, that is diseases carried by mosquitoes but other diseases that affect food including animals.
LUCY CARTER: Are we seeing health impacts on Australians from climate change now?
BRIAN OWLER: Well, we know that climate change is associated with extreme weather events as well, and we've had very severe heat waves over recent summers and those are often associated with significant numbers of deaths and, in fact, a few years ago in Victoria we saw quite a number of people lose their lives associated with heat waves. And so these climate, although they're extremes, the frequency and pattern of those events is likely to increase and the suspicion is that is what we were already starting to see.
LUCY CARTER: How does this new position statement differ from the statement put out by the AMA in 2008?
BRIAN OWLER: Well, I think this position statement basically reaffirms the AMA's commitment, particularly around the health effects of climate change, and I think it's important ahead of the Paris summit later this year, does call on the Government to show leadership, particularly in relation to policies and programs that not only mitigate against climate change, but makes sure that the Australian population are going to well prepared if these sorts of changes, well, when they actually are occurring. We also talk about the importance of looking at renewable energies and I think also acknowledge the effects that decarbonisation of an economy can have particularly on people's employment and that can have significant health consequences as well.
LUCY CARTER: In a statement, a spokesman for the Environment Minister Greg Hunt, says that "only the Coalition is committed to taking serious action to tackle climate change without hurting Australian families and businesses in the process with a painful carbon tax". He says that "as part of our commitment to tackling climate change, the Government will be pursuing a 26 to 28 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 from 2005 levels. "This is the target that the Government will be taking to Paris later this year." Professor Brian Owler says he won't comment on the Government's exact emissions reduction percentage targets, but says it's a good change to hear the Government acknowledge that climate change is real.
BRIAN OWLER: We've seen a number of comments around climate change and whether or not people are actually accepting that there is climate change and whether or not that humans have had a factor in that and certainly there's been some scepticism from the Government in relation to that, so we're pleased at least to see the statements of the Minister that they are now taking this seriously and that they are committed to doing something about it. But of course, we'll all wait to see exactly how that commitment translates into the actions and what the outcomes of those policies are going to be in terms of reducing emissions and hopefully mitigating against climate change.
LUCY CARTER: Professor Owler says it was powerful to see the US president Barack Obama this week declare that any world leader unwilling to take the problem seriously is "not fit to lead".
BRIAN OWLER: There is overwhelming scientific evidence and agreement, consensus amongst scientists, that climate change is real and that there is a human element to it and that there is a need to have the right policies in place. So I think some of the scepticism that has been there in relation to climate change has not been, I think, what many people would like to see from the Government in terms of showing leadership on the issue. And I think you can contrasting compare that with some of the statements that have been made here in Australia compared to the statements of the US president.
DAVID MARK: The AMA's president, Professor Brian Owler, ending that report from Lucy Carter.
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