Sizzling highs set in southern states

Daily Advertiser
04/01/2008 Page: 10

MUCH of southern Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2007, and scientists warn climate change will continue to deliver similar extreme temperatures. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Australian Climate Statement 2007, released yesterday, reveals last year was Australia's sixth warmest year on record - more than half a degree above the annual average temperature. But NSW, Victoria, South Australia, the ACT and the Murray-Darling Basin set new records.

Bureau climate scientist David Jones said the extreme temperatures in southern Australia surpassed expectations. `A very, very warm year, a year which has bumped up well ahead of all the previous warm years on our records, so I guess it really underscores the role that climate change and climate variability, linked together, are now playing," Dr Jones said.

"To have a significant number of our states set new records is remarkable, and Tasmania only missed out by the barest of margins, (there) it came in the second hottest year on record." Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the report confirmed an urgent need to act on climate change, and she promised the federal government would increase household water and energy saving measures this year.

"We know of course we've seen 11 years of inaction from the Howard government," Ms Gillard said. "The Rudd Labor government has already started acting on climate change. "We've ratified Kyoto, we provided leadership at the Bali summit and this year we will work on our national emissions-trading scheme and of course increase the uptake of renewable energy. We'll also be working in partnership with households to help households save water and energy..."