Australia's emissions to rise 27 percent using latest post-2020 #climate targets

Australia's emissions are set to increase dramatically by 27% above 2005 levels by 2030 according to a damning report by the Climate Action Tracker consortium, taking into account Australia's low post 2020 targets announced on 11 August.

Australia's climate targets are exceptionally low by international standards. The post 2020 target of 26 to 28 percent emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2030 is substantially less than the major OECD economies of Europe and the USA. The USA may have a similar target but it is five years earlier in 2025. Even Canada, seen as being particularly weak at the federal level, has a 30 per cent target by 2030, higher than Australia. New Zealand's low target is also greater. Only Japan and South Korea have lower emissions targets than Australia.

A week after the targets were released, the economic modelling was quietly uploaded to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website. The economic modelling by McKibbin Software was done for four post 2020 targets and all showed that GDP growth would continue to be above 2 per cent.

"Targets of -26, -35 and -45 per cent relative to 2005 result in GDP being from 0.4 to 1.0 per cent lower in 2030 than with no target." says the report. A 13 percent reduction was also considered on 2005 levels which would hold Australia's total emissions at a constant level. The targets were all modelled assuming the 2020 Australian emissions target of 5 percent below 2000 levels.

So, Australia could legitimately increase our climate target to 45 per cent on 2005 levels with only a slight reduction to GDP growth of about 1 per cent.

Storify: Climate security and health impacts for Australia and abroad #PopHlth2015

How do you write up a conference presentation which you did not attend and did not see livestreamed? Why through the magic of twitter #hashtag conversation of people live reporting the speakers important points. Add some relevant context and related articles and you have a report.

Rob Sturrock's conference presentation on Climate change and its health impacts at home and abroad at the Population Health Congress 2015 intrigued me, so I gathered all the live tweets from his keynote speech, selected a variety of comments and deleted any that were primarily duplicates and redundant.

In the process, I also read his study The Longest Conflict: Australia's Climate Security Challenge that was released in June 2015 by the Center for Policy Development. In fact before publishing this storify of his keynote speech I published an article on his study: Australian Defence Force poorly prepared for #Climate change. So I had a reasonable understanding of where he was coming from in his talk.

Australian Defence Force poorly prepared for #Climate change

This article was originally posted at nofibs.com.au

Rob Sturrock and Dr Peter Ferguson give some hard truths about the security implications of climate change now and in the near future for Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. In their June 2015 report they claim that climate change is the threat equivalent to a hundred years war, which Australia and the Australian Defence Forces (ADF), are ill prepared for on a strategic level.

"Without intending it, we are confronting a threat akin to a Hundred Year War." say Sturrock and Ferguson. While the Government focusses on hardware upgrades such as new submarine contracts and traditional short term defence asset replacements, the essential strategic planning for operating in a climate changed world is being sorely neglected.

Their report, The Longest Conflict: Australia's Climate Security Challenge (Download the PDF) was released in June 2015 by the Center for Policy Development.

According to the report authors, defence personnel indicate that climate change will not feature strongly in the upcoming Defence White Paper, due for realease in late 2015 or early 2016. The 2014 Defence Issues Paper, while identifying many security threats and opportunities, neglected to mention climate change was one of them.

Storify: When you're in a hole stop digging: Naomi Klein at Sydney Festival of Dangerous ideas on Capitalism and Climate

Unable to attend Naomi Klein's talk at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas on Capitalism and Climate, I watched it live streamed via Getup and commented via twitter using the Climate Action Moreland account (@Camoreland). (Photo by @1millionwomen)

It was an historic speech both inspiring and motivating us for a more caring society, for us to make the leap and change the whole system, not just a slow piecemeal approach tweaking a few economic levers to reduce the worst climate impacts but still leave the substantial racism and inequality inbuilt in the system.

Though a feminist from a jewish cultural background, Klein urged us to read the Pope's latest encyclical, Laundato Si. Though Klein does not mention this, there has also been an Islamic declaration on Climate Change issued in August.

Klein implores us to be honest, bold and generous. As the politics is not now working, to change the politics. We need to change the system so that it works for the benefit of all. Watch the youtube video (58 mins) below:



Here is my storify which collates tweets from the 2,500 people present at the Sydney Opera House with people watching via live streaming and interacting via twitter.

I also collated a storify on Naomi Klein at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

Longer bushfire seasons driven by climate change warns Climate Council

Original article published at nofibs.com.au.

The Climate Council has warned that Australia faces increased bushfire risk, with bushfire seasons extending for longer due to the impact of climate change.

The warning comes after the United States and Canada have suffered one of their worst wildfire seasons on record. More than 8 million acres was burnt this year with seven of the top years having occurred since 2000.

The extension and overlapping of fire seasons in the northern and southern hemisphere poses problems as fire fighting resources and people are often shared and moved to accommodate the greatest risk.

But with seasons extending resources will be retained to fight fires locally. Australia has sent dozens of experienced firefighters to help combat more than 70 fires in the United States, but Australia's fire season is now starting earlier in October and extending later into March.

Atmosphere of Hope: Tim Flannery and Clive Hamilton on #climate engineering at #MWF15

This article was originally published at nofibs.com.au

Professors Clive Hamilton and Tim Flannery on the morality, necessity and possibilities of engineering the climate by carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. A Melbourne Writers Festival event, Saturday 29 August 2015.

I attended the discussion between Professors Clive Hamilton and Tim Flannery at the Melbourne Writers workshop on Saturday morning. Climate change has been a prominent theme of this year's festival, and I have attended a few sessions examining climate stories, sense of place, and importance of communication and narrative.

Storify: A Melbourne audience with Naomi Klein on climate change at #MWF15

Even though in Melbourne, I missed out on a ticket to Naomi Klein at Melbourne Writers Festival. The two Naomi Klein sessions at the Melbourne Writers Festival were booked out well in advance.

I did the next best thing and followed the event on twitter, then used storify to document the session from those who were there, in 81 tweets.

Writers and climate scientists on narrative and climate stories at Melbourne Writers Festival

This post was originally published at Melbourne Polytechnic.

Novelist and lecturer Dr Alice Robinson from the Melbourne Polytechnic Bachelor of Writing and Publishing course joined two climate scientists and a lecturer in journalism to discuss the different styles of writing between science and literature in motivating people on the issue of climate change.

The Melbourne Writers Festival brought together the panel to discuss stories of climate action. The featured panelists were: Monash University Journalism lecturer Deb Anderson, Monash University climate scientist Ailie Gallant, climate scientist Associate Professor Kevin Walsh from Melbourne University, and novelist and Bachelor of Writing and Publishing lecturer Alice Robinson from Melbourne Polytechnic.

The event was held at the fortyfivedownstairs Gallery on Friday 21st August, which also featured an exhibition of handwritten letters of 22 climate scientists responding to the question: "How do you feel about climate change"?

Reflecting on Hurricane Katrina 10 years on

I wrote this in response to a facebook discussion on whether Hurricane Katrina can be attributed to climate change. It is an argument I put together with limited time and research, but still valuable to answer the question..

Talking Climate Change and Place at Melbourne Writers Festival event Footscray

This post was first published at nofibs.com.au

How we communicate climate change is important.

Whether it remains a distant event in time or space, or can be intimately connected to the present and locations we know and love, can make all the difference in how people perceive and act on the issue.

Writers are coming to terms with this in different ways, in different places. The Melbourne Writers Festival in 2015 features several sessions associated with climate change, including two sessions with Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein.

I attended one at Victoria University at Footscray on 'Climate Change and Place' which proved thought provoking and interesting. The panelists for this session included Tony Birch, a writer/lecturer from Victoria University, Jacynta Fuamatu from 350 Pacific, journalist Michael Green and Vanessa O’Neill from the Malthouse Theatre.