Opinion | Australia’s climate change challenge: safeguard jobs while moving away from fossil fuels
- Climate change threatens Australia’s fragile ecosystem as well as lives and livelihoods, yet the country remains heavily dependent on its massive coal industry
- The challenge facing the new Labor government is how to pursue progressive environmental policies without driving economic hardship
Australia is one of the most susceptible places on Earth to the effects of climate change. Record-high monthly and seasonal temperatures across the continent have led to severe droughts, forest fires, floods and other extreme weather events. Rising sea levels threaten livelihoods, infrastructure and housing. In the future, we can expect more of the same.
Australia’s surface temperature has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius and open ocean regions have warmed by 1 degree, resulting in unbearable heatwaves. These heatwaves, stronger and more frequent than in the past, have claimed more lives lately than all other natural catastrophes in the country combined.
More than 80 per cent of Australia’s mammals are unique to the continent, which is known for its diverse flora and fauna. In just the past five years, 175 plant and animal species have been listed as environmentally threatened. If prompt action is not taken to stop the continent’s drastically declining environmental health, this richness could be lost forever.
It’s no wonder, then, that climate change has become one of the most difficult and divisive topics in Australian politics. The country is sensitive both to the effects of climate change and to policies which attempt to mitigate them.
