Climate change report a wake-up call: Combet

The World Today By Sabra Lane and Eleanor Hall Updated 1 hour 1 minute ago

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says a new report is a wake-up call to those who deny global warming is a problem.
The Climate Commission's latest report warns that climate change is already increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather in Australia.
 
The report, which has been backed by Australia's top climate scientists and science bodies, says that in some cases Australia's climate has shifted permanently.

Mr Combet says the report underpins the reason why the Government has put a price on carbon.
"These are things that people in the community need to be aware of and of course they are the underpinning reason why the Government has moved to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of an international effort to tackle climate change," he told The World Today.

"The scientific facts are very clear and we've got to deal with this issue. You cannot bury your head in the sand like Tony Abbott would have us do."

Mr Combet says Australia is not the only country working to cut emissions.
"From 2015 China will have a national emissions trading scheme, and so will Korea," he said.
"California started carbon pricing from January 1 this year. New Zealand's had an emissions trading scheme for several years

"All across the European Union there's carbon pricing through an emissions trading scheme."
The Federal Coalition has reiterated its support for the science underpinning climate change following the report's release.
Opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt says he agrees with the Government's desire to reduce emissions, but says it is not working.
"You have a Government that's silent about the fact that emissions in Australia go up, not down under the carbon tax," he said.

"They'll never talk about the fact that our emissions go up by 77 million tonnes between 2010 and 2020 under their carbon tax."

The Australian by: Shaun Tandon From: AAP April 03, 2013 1:25PM

THE author of an influential 2006 study on climate change has warned that the world could be headed towards warming even more catastrophic than expected but he voiced hope for political action.

Nicholas Stern, the British former chief economist for the World Bank, said on Tuesday that both emissions of greenhouse gas and the effects of climate change were taking place faster than he forecast seven years ago.

Without changes to emission trends, the planet has roughly a 50 per cent chance that temperatures will soar to 5C above pre-industrial averages in a century, he said.

"We haven't been above five degrees Centigrade on this planet for about 30 million years. So you can see that this is radical change way outside human experience," Stern said in an address at the International Monetary Fund.

"When we were at three degrees Centigrade three million years ago, the sea levels were about 20 some metres above now. On sea level rise of just two metres, probably a couple of hundred million people would have to move," he said.
Stern said that other effects would come more quickly including the expansion of deserts and the melting of Himalayan snows that supply rivers on which up to two billion people depend.
Even if nations fulfil pledges made in 2010 at a UN-led conference in Cancun, Mexico, the world would be on track to warming of 4C, he said.
Stern's 2006 study, considered a landmark in raising public attention on climate change, predicted that warming would shave at least five per cent off gross domestic product each year.
Despite the slow progress in international negotiations, Stern saw signs for hope as a number of countries move to put a price on greenhouse gases.
"My own view is that 2013 is the best possible year to try to work and redouble our efforts to create the political will that hitherto has been much too weak," Stern said.
Stern said French President Francois Hollande was keen for nations to meet their goal of sealing an accord in 2015 in Paris.
Stern also voiced hope that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, long a prominent voice on climate change, would become more active after this year's elections.

US President Barack Obama has vowed action on climate change after an earlier bid was thwarted by legislators of the rival Republican Party, many of whom reject the science behind climate change.