State of Australian Climate 2024 paints a worsening picture: 13 graphs and maps

 

Australia's climate is worsening, driven by accelerating climate change, according to the latest assessment by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO. 

Buckle up people. Expect longer, more intense extreme heat events. Heat events kill more people than all other extreme weather events combined. 

Australia has now warmed by 1.51 degrees Centigrade.

South West Australia and South East Australia will get drier. But when it rains, heavy short term rain events are becoming more intense. That means more flash flooding. It also has iimplications for agriculture.

The hotter, drier climate means longer fire season, a more extreme fire season. We are seeing more pyrocumulonimbus (Pyro CB) fires when a bushfire starts generating its own weather firestorm. Larger fires mean more smoke that can travel for hundreds even thousands of kilometres with the air pollution particulates affecting people in distant towns and cities. More people are dying from smoke related conditions.

CHOGM meeting in Samoa: new report highlights Australia, Canada, UK role in fossil fuel emissions

This page discusses CHOGM 2024 and climate change and the outcomes.

A New report launched at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa reveals the stark imbalance in fossil fuel extraction across the Commonwealth and highlights the dominance of three wealthy nations—Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom—in driving fossil fuel expansion and emissions. 

The report Uncommon Wealth: Fossil Fuel Expansion in the Commonwealth Dominated by Three Wealthy Countries - was commissioned by the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative and based on data from the Global Registry of Fossil Fuels. 

It shows that despite representing only 6% of the Commonwealth’s population, Australia, Canada, and the UK are responsible for over 60% of emissions generated from extraction across Commonwealth countries since 1990.

Outcomes: Samoa Communique | Ocean Declaration | 
King Charles on Climate Action | CANi & PICAN Briefing Note |
Australia: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese | Foreign Minister Penny Wong

King Selling Australian Gas expansion in Japan while Prime Minister pacifies Island Nations facing Sea Level Rise existential threat

Minister King in Japan spruiking gas. Source: X

Currently the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is ocurring in Apia Samoa with Australia being called upon by numerous Island nation leaders and ministers to stop approving new fossil fuel projects and to start phasing out fossil fuels. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong are there to rebutt and pacify the pointed diplomatic attacks.

Meanwhile Minister for Energy and Resources Madeleine King is in Japan talking up and selling Australian gas expansion and repeating some lies such as Australian gas is needed to keep the lights on.

Emissions Gap Report 2024: we are out of time, teetering on the edge of climate disaster

This is the fifteenth annual report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on the Emissions Gap. The warning is clear in 2024 that not enough is being done to reduce emissions which will result in catastrophic impacts down the line. Key take aways from the report:

• It is still technically possible to meet the 1.5°C goal, but only with a G20-led massive global mobilization to cut all greenhouse gas emissions, starting today
• Continuation of current policies will lead to a catastrophic temperature rise of up to 3.1°C
• Current commitments for 2030 are not being met; even if they are met, temperature rise would only be limited to 2.6-2.8°C

What needs to be done?

Nations must collectively commit to cutting 42 per cent off annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 57 per cent by 2035 in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due in February 2025 – and back this up with rapid action – or the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal will be gone within a few years. 

AMOC collapse: Scientists issue open letter warning on catastrophic risk of Atlantic ocean circulation collapse

Risk of Collapse of Ocean Circulation (AMOC) underestimated: Continued greenhouse gas emissions could trigger a regional cooling around the North Atlantic warned the Icelandic Met Office

An Open Letter by Climate Scientists, including 3 Australian climate scientists, was presented to the Nordic Council of Ministers warning of AMOC collapse "risk has so far been greatly underestimated. Such an ocean circulation change would have devastating and irreversible impacts especially for Nordic countries, but also for other parts of the world."

Global impacts may include "a shift in tropical rainfall belts, reduced oceanic carbon dioxide uptake (and thus faster atmospheric increase) as well as major additional sea-level rise particularly along the American Atlantic coast, and an upheaval of marine ecosystems and fisheries"

Inaugural Global Nature Positive Summit more financial greenwash than tackling decline in nature and biodiversity

Australia committed two years ago in 2022 at the landmark Convention on Biodiversity COP15 meeting in Montreal to hold an inaugural Global Nature Positive Summit. This occurred in Sydney 8-10 October. 

Unlike the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at Biodiversity COP15,  the Nature Positive Summit proved to have substantial  greenwash from the Australian and NSW state Governments, as they continue to approve and subsidise new coal and gas or logging of native forests.

The Federal Labor Government had been elected in May 2022 with a commitment to take strong climate action and to revamp and overhaul Australia's ineffective national environment laws. 

A report on State of the Australian Environment had its publication delayed by the previous Coalition Government. This report showed most ecosystems are declining or in a dire state which needs to be addressed, and is already impacting human society and economics. This expert report summaried at The Conversation, argued that:

• Australia’s environment is generally deteriorating
• Climate change threatens every ecosystem
• The importance of Indigenous knowledge and management to deliver on-ground change
• Environmental management isn’t well coordinated
• Environmental decline and destruction is harming our well-being

Since Labor came to power in May 2022 we have seen some changes made such as a Water Trigger and Nature Repair Market, further changes to establish an Environment Protection Agency and Data Information Agency at a standstill in the Senate with the Government unwilling to compromise with the Greens and crossbench. Most substantive changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act have now been pushed out to beyond the next election. A fundamental fail by this Labor Government.

The Coalition has refused to bargain on a bipartisan basis and has signaled its support for business as usual regarding land clearing, forestry and mining. They too refused to act on the Samuel Review to upgrade ther EPBC Act. Ambition to address biodiversity crisis and species extinction is failing from both major parties.

The Nature Positive Summit seems to be more talkfest as Government policy ambition fails to address the nature negative policies already in place and driving biodiversity loss. The conference was held a week after three new thermal coal mine projects approved by the Federal Government that will result in up to 1.5 billion tonnes of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. 

The Labor NSW government can't stand high either as Forests NSW is about to log native forests 400km north of Sydney in the Bulga State Forest, which includes habitat for ther endangered Greater Glider. The Federal Government Regional Forestry Agreements with the states exclude application of the present ineffective national environment laws to protect endangered species.