On listening to and observing the debate surrounding climate change and climate policy in Australia over the past few weeks, anyone would think that we were on the verge of some kind of civil war.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On radio, television and in our press, largely self-serving arguments often based on scant evidence have been thrown back and forth.
It doesn't need to be this way. In this confused and sometimes toxic environment, it's important for all Australians to have access to clear information on climate change that is independent of government and the political process. As members of the Australian Climate Commission, we want to help provide it.
We are a group with a mix of skills but a shared view that it is imperative to reduce emissions and lessen the potential environmental and economic risks associated with a warmer and more unstable climate.
Today in Geelong we are holding the first in a number of public forums that we will be holding around Australia. We look forward to listening and, no doubt, learning a lot from those attending.
The commission was not set up to comment on particular policies but to explain the facts. First, sadly, all the evidence reveals that the atmosphere is warming. Over the past 30 years, warming has proceeded at a rate of about 0.17 degrees per decade. The decade 2001 to 2010 was the warmest on record.
Recent work by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology reveals that the number of days with record hot temperatures has increased each decade over the past 50 years. And there have been fewer record cold days.
These are not predictions. They are empirical facts.
Second, some people claim the climate is always changing and current warming is just part of a natural cycle. Climate doesn't change on its own. Something must cause the changes. For example, the cycle of ice ages and warm inter-glacial periods is due to small variations in the Earth's orbit, which alter patterns of absorbed sunlight. The warming of the past 50 years cannot be explained by natural factors such as the sun. We can only explain this warming if greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are taken into account.
Third, some look at the challenge of reducing emissions and see that Australia's contribution to the problem is so small, there is little point in us acting alone. But we are not. Major emitters, including the European Union, China and the United States, are already acting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because they see that it is in their interests to do so. Even India, the poorest major economy, is introducing an energy-saving scheme to help its major companies reduce emissions, and a coal levy to fund renewable energy technology. Australia should play its fair part.
Per person we are one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases, one of the top 20 highest-emitting countries, and well-placed to demonstrate how we can reduce emissions and maintain our prosperity.
There is a view that there is little benefit in introducing a carbon price. Despite our efforts to date, Australia's emissions in 2020 are still projected to grow by more than 20 per cent above their levels in 2000.
So, if we manage to achieve even a 5 per cent reduction by 2020, that is 25 per cent less than it would have been. That is a big number. And it is only by playing our part in reducing emissions that we can reduce both the risk of dangerous climate change and the risk that policy decisions taken by other economies will affect our economy and our terms of trade.
We wish there were a cost-free way to reduce emissions, but there isn't. And a carbon price is a core element of effective climate policy.
The constraint of a carbon price can be a powerful driver to innovation. As this debate continues in Australia, we hope to play our role in helping further understand the perspective of all Australians and help dispel some of the myths and explain some of the facts.
Our politics, politicians and charismatic commentators will no doubt take much of the attention but quietly, in the background, the climate problem is here and is only getting bigger and more important each day.
As we all better understand the dynamics behind the problem and some of the ways that we can collectively address it, as climate commissioners we all hope to make a positive and useful contribution.
Professor Tim Flannery is chief commissioner of the Climate Commission.
Professor Will Steffen is executive director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University.
Gerry Hueston is former president of BP Australasia and former chairman of the Business Council of Australia's sustainable growth taskforce.
