The Climate Change and Development Roundtable
Climate Change: Impacts and Australia’s Role In Assisting Our Most Vulnerable Neighbours

An Australian Cost Curve for Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Read the report by McKinsey&Company

Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper July 2008
Read the summary by the Department of Climate Change

Climate Change in Queensland - What the science is telling us
Read the report by the Queensland Office of Climate Change, Environmental Protection Agency

CSIRO Fact Sheet - Reducing Australia's greenhouse emissions factsheet

Read "Millions 'at risk' from warmer world" article in The Australian

The global warming poverty trap

Every moment the planet adapts to climate change. Species modify their behaviour, genetic code sets change alter to survive different circumstances and humans respond after weighing up the risks ahead. But poor countries are trapped by their inability to finance adaptation to climate change.

This puts the onus on wealthier countries to mitigate the worse possible consequences of climate change as well as to soften the blow of the inevitable impacts that lie ahead.

AusAid has responded to the challenge of supporting climate adaptation in its policy and funding. AusAid funding will help many of our Pacific island neighbours and poorer Asian countries such as Cambodia to assess and adapt to the likely local impacts of climate change. For example, in Cambodia, malaria control and flood protection along the Mekong River will be priorities for adaptation funding.

Priorities in Pacific island countries such as Samoa and Kiribati will include: improved climate monitoring; better management of water resources, such as securing water for drinking and irrigation; and, protection of coastal zones from extreme weather events.

However adaptation alone will not be enough, especially if sea levels rise to the 5 metre + level predicted by some scientists.

As Professor Charles Perrings from the University of York notes, “Both the frequency and severity of natural disasters affect low-income countries disproportionately. In the last decade of the 20th century, for example, 94% of all natural disasters and 97% of deaths due to natural disasters occurred in low income countries...People in poor countries are effectively much less able to control the damage done by such events...adaptation is not enough to protect developing countries from the negative consequences of climate change.” 

Oxfam Australia has stressed the vital connection between poverty and climate change. Climate change will, according to CEO Andrew Hewitt, affect everyone, but it will affect poor people in developing countries the most. By 2025 more than half the population of the developing world will be highly vulnerable to floods and storms according to Hewitt. Oxfam notes that crop gardens on 6 out of Tuvalu's 8 islands have already been damaged by rising sea levels and storms. Export cash crops are now vulnerable to damage by heat, salivation and severe weather.

Population growth without more sustainable practices would accelerate climate change.  

The prospect of many millions of vulnerable people on the move in the Asia Pacific region will motivate many Australians to seek a humanitarian response. This seems just since the average Australian is responsible for the emission of around 60 times more carbon than the average Bangladeshi. Surely Australia has an obligation to help.

Providing a helping hand could include offering a new home for people displaced through sea-level rise. However Australia’s high current per capita greenhouse emission must surely feature into this consideration. Crudely put – if Australia and other highly greenhouse polluting nations welcomed large numbers of people displaced by sea-level rise from our region without significantly reducing our emissions, the planet would warmer faster. And more people would be at risk of displacement.

As leading Australian economist Warwick McKibbin puts it, "You could make the argument that the more people you bring here the worse the total emissions for the world."

Reducing Australia’s carbon footprint is a crucial part of our response

The People’s Assembly will grapple with the challenge of reducing Australia’s carbon footprint to enable us to find an appropriate and sustainable response to the plight of people displaced by sea-level rise.

The mix of responses recommended will depend on the consensus views of 15 ordinary citizens after considering these many complex issues with the benefit of expert information and feedback. They will consider:

• Government policy in relation to large scale deployment of renewable energy and sustainable water solutions, and incentives for people to consumer less greenhouse intensive energy
• Private sector initiatives underway to improve the sustainability of public and private infrastructure, and to enable more flexible and less energy consuming workplace practices
• Community initiatives to lower Australia’s carbon footprint

The cost of making the transition towards a lower carbon footprint is greatly debated. Leading consultancy McKinsey argues that a significant reduction in Australian greenhouse gas emissions is achievable without major technological breakthroughs or lifestyle changes. McKinsey&Company argue further that the transition is affordable – but many disagree, which helps to explain Australia’s lack of aggressive policy or investment responses until now.