Malcolm Turnbull States Australia’s Climate Is Getting Warmer
XXX on March 23, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. The Australian Government is establishing a $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund to help emerging technologies.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull while on a tour of drought- ravaged areas in New South Wales stated that Australia’s climate is getting warmer. While Turnbull recognized the threat of global warming he said not many people in New South Wales attributed the warmer and drier weather to climate change:
“I don’t know how many people in rural New South Wales that I talk to that don’t think the climate is getting drier and the rainfall is becoming more volatile.”
The Bureau of Meteorology estimates that temperatures will become warmer and drier in large areas of the country. Their studies show that winter rainfall will fall below average for NSW, northern Victoria, South Australia, and the western parts of Western Australia.
Scientists are unanimous in saying that climate change is moving at an accelerated pace. The climate scientists have expressed concern about the rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions. If these emissions are not reduced, humans will become exposed to the risks of extreme changes in weather conditions.
Emissions data on Australia revealed that pollution has increased by 1.5% in 2017. Those levels are much higher than emission readings in 2012. When the Abbott government repealed the carbon pricing scheme designed by the Labor government in 2014, emission levels rose by 3.6%.
PM Turnbull plans to implement a policy in the electricity sector whereby emission would be reduced by 26% in 2030. This is the target level of Australia in order to meet its commitment with the Paris Agreement. Many analysts believe the target is too low and unrealistic.
For now, Australia is not sure how to meet its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and comply with the Paris Agreement.
Institutional investors with more than $26 Trillion in assets which include Australia’s Investor Group on Climate Change have expressed concern that many countries are not on pace to meet their commitments to the Paris Agreement:
“We are concerned that the implementation of the Paris agreement is currently falling short of the agreed goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels.”
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