Act now or face global disaster: UN report

Adelaide Advertiser
Monday 19/11/2007 Page: 4

GLOBAL warming is an unavoidable reality and Australia faces water shortages, higher than expected sea level rises and extensive species extinction unless the world's greenhouse gases are severely curtailed. The warning is contained in the United Nation's final Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, prompting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call on governments to unite.

Australian scientists said the next federal government needed to act urgently to address the dire situation, and urged voters to think of the environment. "Whichever party is elected next Saturday has to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, set strong 2020 targets to reduce emissions, boost renewable energy and dramatically improve the efficiency of turning energy into services," Professor Ian Lowe, president of the Australian Conservation Foundation said.

The fourth IPCC report, released in Spain, details what can and should be done to counter the climate change impacts detailed in its previous reports. It said temperatures had risen 0.74C in the last 100 years, sea levels have increased 1.8mm a year since 1961 and the past decade has been the warmest in recorded history. Without action, global warming will spread hunger and disease, put further stress on water resources, cause fiercer storms, more frequent droughts and kill or threaten up to 70 per cent of plant and animal species.

The report suggested a range of measures for avoiding the worst catastrophes - at a cost of less than 0.12 per cent of the global economy annually until 2050 if taken together. They ranged from switching to nuclear and gas-fired power stations, developing hybrid cars, using more efficient electrical appliances.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd says the Government had buried its heading the sand and had been "economically irresponsible" by failing to outline a future plan to deal with climate change. He said Labor had committed to the Kyoto Protocol, a carbon target and increased renewable energy. Prime Minister John Howard said climate change was a serious challenge, but "the world is not coming to an end tomorrow." "Like all of these things, we have to get a common sense, balanced approach," he said yesterday.

Under the toughest scenario considered by the IPCC, greenhouse gases would have to peak by 2015 to limit global temperature rises to 2-2.4C over pre-industrial times. This would entail cuts of 50-85 per cent in emissions, but there could still be 30 per cent species loss, major coastal flooding, most corals bleached and world-wide water problems, said Professor Barry Brook, director of the Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability at the University of Adelaide.

He said sea level rises would be much worse than the 18-59cm predicted by 2100 because of the difficulty of modelling the unexpectedly rapid degree of melting at the poles. "It is a damning indictment on our collective vacillation, inaction and deliberate stalling to date, in facing up to this problem that we are now facing the stark choice between a bad situation, a catastrophic situation, or a civilisation terminating situation," he said. "There is one bit of good news, if policy makers will just take heed."