Scientists have confirmed what anyone who lived through the past summer knows to be true - climate change is driving hotter and longer summers that are becoming "the new normal", according to scientists, with worse to come unless tough decisions are made.
The summer of 2016/17 produced not only Sydney's hottest summer on record, Canberra's hottest summer for daytime temperatures and Brisbane's hottest summer in terms of mean temperature, but Queensland's second hottest summer on record and the hottest summer temperatures on record for almost 45 per cent of NSW.
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| Dryer conditions are making inland Australia less habitable. Photo: Mal Fairclough |
"We are into the latter half of the critical decade, and temperatures are continuing to increase and extreme weather events are worsening. Climate change is increasing the frequency, duration and intensity of heatwaves and warm spells. Hot days and heatwaves, like those experienced in the 2016/17 angry summer, are becoming the new normal, and even more extreme heat is on the way in future unless rapid and deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are achieved around the world," the report warned.
Australia's fossil-fueled summer
Eastern Australia experience an unprecedented heat wave this summer as evidence linking climate change with burning fossil fuels grows ever stronger. Courtesy ABC News24.
The reports authors, which include Professor Will Steffen, the inaugural director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute, warned that Australia will continue to warm up throughout the 21st century and experience increasingly severe impacts.
But it is not too late to stop the worst case predictions from coming true.
"Whether or not extreme heat becomes even worse during the second half of the century depends on whether the world, including Australia as one of the 15 largest emitters, can rapidly and deeply reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a carbon-neutral global economy by mid-century," the report says.
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| Scientists are calling for a rapid uptake of renewable energy to drive down Australia's use of fossil fuels. Photo: Pacific Hydro Limited |
But if greenhouse gas emissions are cut very rapidly and deeply then the rise in temperature increases could be minimised.
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| The summer of 2016/17 was the hottest summer on record in Sydney. Photo: Getty Images |
Despite Australia's commitment to decrease its production of greenhouse gas emissions at the Paris international climate change talks in 2015, our emissions rose by 0.8 per cent last year.
"This rise puts into serious doubt whether even Australia's very weak emissions reductions target of 26 to 28 per cent by 2030 can be achieved," the report warned.
"With Australia's emissions continuing to rise, it is clear that the federal government's current climate policy is failing. Australia needs to transition rapidly to cheap, clean, renewable energy to reduce our emissions as opposed to 'clean coal' plants."
The federal government said last month that coal-fired power stations could be eligible for funding from Australia's $10 billion green bank.
In what would represent a significant weakening of the country's environmental financing rules, Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg confirmed the government is considering issuing a new ministerial directive to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to put investment in so-called "clean coal" on the table.
Professor Steffen told a press conference on Wednesday morning that the government needed to realise that coal fired power stations were "20th century thinking".
"I hope we realise, like any big technological breakthrough, going to renewable energy and smart systems is the way of the 21st century...Rather than fighting this transition we need to support them [forms of renewable energy] and embrace them and make them work to our benefit."
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