The Climate Council announced that the IPCC Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report, compiled by almost 300 scientists across 67 countries, will clearly show how humanity is still heading for a bleak future, calling on climate change action to be accelerated now and throughout the 2020s.
The council reported that serious climate risks to Australia include irreversible coral reef loss, the extinction of alpine species, the collapse of southern Australian forests, the extinction of kelp forests, sea-level rise, an increase in severe fire weather days, and a dramatic increase in fatal heatwaves.
Australians are already being harmed by climate impacts such as worsening extreme weather, but the council said people can significantly limit future harms by transitioning quickly away from fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions this decade.
“Australia is one of the most vulnerable developed countries to the impacts of climate change and we’ve seen the risks dramatically escalate over the past five years. We have much to lose and everything to gain by acting decisively to get emissions plummeting this critical decade,” said Professor Lesley Hughes, Climate Councillor, former IPCC author and Distinguished Professor of Biology at Macquarie University.
Hughes pointed out that Australia is one of the wealthy nations that is most susceptible to the effects of climate change, emphasising that over the past five years, the dangers have increased significantly.
“While this is a summary report of work we’d already seen in development, there is no doubt the findings of this report will be dire,” she remarked.
As a result, the councillor said humanity has a limited opportunity to rekindle global momentum for a safer climate.
She also urged the governments to take note of the recommendations in this study and act more quickly.
Meanwhile, Dr Simon Bradshaw, Climate Council’s director of research, said the central message from climate scientists is unmistakable, that is, governments must band together to drastically reduce emissions and phase out the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels this decade.
“We have a choice here to act swiftly this decade. If we start giving it our all right now, we can avert the worst of it. So many solutions are readily available, like solar and wind power, storage, electric appliances and clean transport options. We need to get our skates on,” Bradshaw remarked.
The director also emphasised that coal, oil, and gas need to be phased out and left behind in “the polluting past where they belong,” and replaced by the clean industries of the future.
For updates on the report, visit https://www.ipcc.ch/.
