Flooding, cyclones and even a Japanese encephalitis outbreak are among the risks facing Australians this summer as a leading climate body warns of a rise in “unnatural disasters”.
The Climate Council and Emergency Leaders for Climate Action said their report, The Great Deluge: Australia’s new era of unnatural disasters, outlined the extent to which taxpayers were footing the bill for damage caused by floods, bushfires and other disasters while oil companies “rake in piles of cash”.
Former NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner Greg Mullins said emergency responders were being overwhelmed by the scale, speed and severity of extreme weather events.
“We need to make our disaster management systems fit-for-purpose in the face of worsening climate disasters ... governments must invest in emergency services, better disaster management co-ordination, more accurate risk models and community resilience programs,” Mr Mullins said.
Another report, The State of the Climate Report 2022, released by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, also found climate extremes were happening at an increased pace.
The report, released every two years, shows an increase in extreme heat events, intense heavy rainfall, longer fire seasons and sea level rise. The report draws on the latest climate monitoring, science and projection information.
CSIRO Climate Science Centre director Jaci Brown said concentrations of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, were at the highest levels seen on earth in at least two million years.
Dr Brown said the report documented the continuing acidification of the oceans around Australia, which have also warmed by more than one degree since 1900.
Bureau of Meteorology Climate Environmental Prediction Services manager Karl Braganza said the report projected increases in air temperatures, more heat extremes and fewer cold extremes in coming decades.
“Australia’s climate has warmed on average by 1.47 degrees since 1910,” Dr Braganza said.
“There’s been an overall decline in rainfall between April and October across southern Australia in recent decades, but in northern Australia, rainfall has increased across the region since the 1970s.”
During La Niña events in 2021-22, eastern Australia experienced one of its most significant flood periods ever observed.
The report shows heavy rainfall events are becoming more intense and the number of short-duration heavy rainfall events is expected to increase in the future.
Dr Braganza said the length of fire seasons had increased across the country in recent decades.