changing climate

Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 978 1 921507 00 7
Year 2009

Price: $20.95

  

The Changing Climate
Volume 290, Issues in Society

Responding to human-induced climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Climate change is a global issue that affects us all, and each industrialised nation is being called upon to do its part in reducing greenhouse pollution. This book explores the causes, impacts and costs of climate change and frames the debate over greenhouse emissions mitigation. Will there be a concerted, combined effort by the major nations to tackle global warming? While Australia continues to debate the proposed lowering of emissions targets ahead of a planned carbon emissions trading scheme, what is the outlook for the future of the planet? Is it already too little, too late, to avoid dangerous climate change?

Chapter 1  Extent and Impacts of Climate Change
Climate change - what does it mean?, Climate change: implications for Australia, Climate change - potential impacts and costs, Findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Impacts of global warming, Key points from the fourth IPCC report, Climate change in Australia, Despite sceptics' noise, scientific consensus is growing, Common climate myths, Climate impacts and emission targets.

Chapter 2  Action on Climate Change
Australian Government action on climate change, What is the rest of the world doing on climate change?, Australia's national greenhouse accounts, Too hot an issue to ignore, Doing nothing is not an option for survival, Garnaut releases framework for low-emissions future, Softly, softly on Garnaut report, Realistic debate needed to find viable solutions, New research shows a way forward on emissions trading, The economics of climate change mitigation, Is that it? The tiny cost of tackling climate change, What is an emissions trading scheme?, Billions to ease carbon burden, Emissions trading - how it works, Australia's national emissions target, Oiling the squeaks, Greenies go ga-ga over emissions.

Glossary; Fast Facts; Web Links; Index



fast facts
FAST FACTS from this volume
  • Climate change is a global issue that affects us all. Changes in climate patterns mean that extreme weather events such as heatwaves, floods, storms, droughts and bushfires will become more frequent, more widespread or more intense.
  • Climate change is the result of changes in our weather patterns because of an increase in the Earth’s average temperature. This is caused by increases in greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. These gases soak up heat from the sun but instead of the heat leaving the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is trapped, making the Earth warmer. Climate change is also known as global warming.
  • Greenhouse gases are produced by human activity, including: burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil or gas; using energy generated by burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas); some aspects of farming, such as raising cattle and sheep, using fertilisers and growing some crops clearing land, including logging; breakdown of food and plant wastes and sewerage; some industrial processes, such as making cement and aluminium.
  • The main greenhouse gases generated by human activity are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and some manufactured gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halocarbons and some of their replacements. Water vapour is also a powerful greenhouse gas but the amount in the atmosphere is not directly linked to human activity.
  • Research by the world’s leading scientists suggests that without actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Earth’s surface temperature is likely to rise by 1.0-6.4C°by the end of this century. Likely outcomes are reduced water availability, more heatwaves, fewer frosts, less snowfall, more storms, stronger tropical cyclones and rises of 18-59cm in sea levels.
  • Australia is very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. If levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise, the resulting climate change could lead to serious impacts on coastal communities, iconic areas such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Kakadu wetlands, biodiversity, agriculture, water supplies, human health, transport and communications infrastructure.
  • Eleven of the past 12 years rank among the warmest on record. (IPPC, 2007)
  • Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are the highest in 650,000 years. (IPPC, 2007
  • Carbon dioxide emissions, largely from fossil fuel, grew 80% between 1970 and 2004. (IPPC, 2007)
  • Global warming could lead to impacts that are “abrupt and irreversible” including rapid sea-level rise. (IPPC, 2007)
  • Up to 30% of plant and animal species are at risk of extinction over the next century. (IPPC, 2007)
  • By 2020 agriculture yields in some African nations will halve. (IPPC, 2007)
  • By 2020 Australia faces significant loss of animal and plant species on the Great Barrier Reef and in the Queensland wet tropics. (IPPC, 2007)
  • By 2030 food and forestry production will decline over much of southern and eastern Australia. (IPPC, 2007)
  • By 2050 Australian coastal areas will be affected by sea level rise, increased intense storms and coastal flooding. (IPPC, 2007)
  • By 2050 the big river delta regions of Asia will be at greatest risk from sea flooding. (IPPC, 2007
  • Impacts can be reduced, delayed and avoided by early action. The cost of early action could be as low as 0.12% of global GDP. (IPPC, 2007)
  • Evidence of the planet’s warming is now “unequivocal” and the effects on the climate system could be “abrupt or irreversible”. (IPPC, 2007)
  • Retreating glaciers and loss of alpine snow, thinning Arctic summer sea ice and thawing permafrost show that climate change is already on the march. (IPPC, 2007)
  • By 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1C and 6.4C compared with 1980-99 levels. (IPPC, 2007)
  • Sea levels will rise by at least 18cm. An earlier estimate of an upper limit of 59cm did not take into account “uncertainties” about the impact of disrupted carbon cycles and melting icesheets in Greenland and the Antarctic. (IPPC, 2007)
  • Heatwaves, rainstorms, tropical cyclones and surges in sea level are among the events expected to become more frequent, more widespread or more intense this century. (IPPC, 2007)
  • “All countries” will be affected by climate change, but those in the forefront are poor nations, especially small island states and developing economies where hundreds of millions of people live in low-lying deltas. (IPPC, 2007)
  • Reducing emissions can be met at moderate cost relative to global GDP, but the window of opportunity for quickly reaching a safer, stable level is closing fast. In 2050, the cost to the world economy of stabilising CO2 levels in the target range of 710-445 parts per million is estimated at between a gain of 1% of GDP to a decrease of 5.5%, slowing annual growth by less than 0.12 percentage points. (IPPC, 2007)
  • When Australia ratified the Kyoto Protocol, it committed to restraining its greenhouse gas emissions to an average 108% of 1990 levels across the period 2008-2012. Australia is on track to meet this target. Because it is not clear what levels of emissions reductions will be required of Australia beyond 2012, the Government has decided to set a 2020 target range, in order to retain some flexibility in international negotiations while providing guidance and certainty to businesses and households about the likely level of emissions reductions required after 2012. The Government has set a medium-term target range for emissions reductions of between 5% and 15% below 2000 levels by 2020.
  • The bottom of this range (a 5% reduction on 2000 levels) represents an unconditional commitment by Australia to reduce emissions even if no international agreement to do so is reached. The top of the range (a 15% reduction on 2000 levels) represents the emissions reductions Australia is prepared to undertake in the context of global agreement under which all major economies commit to substantially restrain emissions, and advanced economies take on reductions comparable to Australia.