Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 8:44 AM
Subject: [ClimatePublic] GREG COMBET - MEDIA RELEASE - EXTREME WEATHER A WAKE-UP CALL - 3 APRIL 2013
THE HON GREG COMBET AM MP
Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation
MEDIA RELEASE
GC 89/13 | 3 April 2013 |
EXTREME WEATHER REPORT A WAKE-UP CALL
A new report from the Climate Commission today shows climate change is already impacting on extreme weather in Australia.
"This report shows that climate change is no longer a problem for the future - it's already here," the Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation, Greg Combet, said.
"Record-breaking weather and extreme weather events are becoming more and more common."
Last summer over 100 weather records were broken in Australia, including the hottest month and hottest day on record.
The report shows that the climate has shifted, increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.
"This highlights the need for strong and effective policies because the action we take today will largely determine the severity of climate change that our grandchildren will experience," Mr Combet said.
"Increasing greenhouse gas emissions is like loading the dice for more extreme weather events in the future. We owe it to future generations to clean up our economy and reduce carbon pollution."
The Gillard Government has implemented comprehensive policies to tackle climate change, including carbon pricing, the Renewable Energy Target and the $1.2 billion Clean Technology Programs.
These policies are already increasing renewable energy and reducing Australia's carbon pollution.
In the first six months of the carbon price, emissions from electricity generated in the National Electricity Market declined by 8.6 per cent. Since the carbon price came in, the share of energy from renewable sources has increased by almost 30 per cent, and the share from coal-fired generation declined by nearly 10 per cent.
"The Climate Commission's report is a wake-up call for those who think we can afford to delay taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Combet said.
"It’s time for Tony Abbott to pull his head out of the sand and start listening to the scientists".
The Opposition Leader has previously said: that the world's warming has stopped; that a four degree temperature increase wouldn't be that bad; that he is not concerned by rising sea levels and questioned the link between rising emissions and climate change.
It is time Mr Abbott is held accountable for such reckless views and called on to explain how he would seriously respond to the issue of climate change.
His Direct Action policy of paying subsidies to polluters has been criticised by scientists, economists and business experts.
The scientific advice is that this is the critical decade to act.
The stakes are high. Australia needs responsible leadership and sound policies on climate change, not opportunistic scare campaigns and negative politicking.
The Climate Commission report The Critical Decade: Extreme Weather is available at: http://climatecommission.gov.au/report/extreme-weather/
Media contact: Mark Davis, Gia Hayne 02 6277 7920
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IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
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must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
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