Doctors push for stronger climate action

Medical experts have penned an open letter to Scott Morrison demanding the government commit to more ambitious 2030 climate goals at a UN climate conference in November.

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid.

Medical experts have penned an open letter to Scott Morrison demanding the government commit to more ambitious 2030 climate goals at a UN climate conference in November.

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid is among the signatories of a letter that calls on the Prime Minister “to urgently take much greater action to avert a further deterioration of the current climate crisis”.

“With the crucial UN climate change conference (COP26) just weeks away, Australia must significantly lift its commitment to the global effort to bring climate change under control in order to save lives and protect health,” the letter says. “Australia must talk less about aspiration, and focus on firm, binding commitments … aligned with the science.”

The letter is urging the government to use the November conference in Glasgow to commit to cutting Australia’s greenhouse emissions aligned to science-based targets within “this decade”.

The doctors want Australia’s medium-term targets to align with keeping the temperature of the planet from rising no more than 1.5C from pre-industrial levels.

While Mr Morrison is expected to commit to a net-zero emissions by 2050 target at Glasgow, he is resisting calls to increase Australia’s medium-term target to reduce carbon emissions by 26-28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.

The letter is also signed by the Doctors for the Environment Australia chair John Van Der Kallen and the heads of 11 medical colleges.

The letter says doctors understand the “imminent health threats posed by climate change and have seen them already emerge in Australia”.

“Flooding, fires and heatwaves not only have immediate health risks but also come with longer-term physical, economic and mental impacts of displacement, loss of life and loss of livelihoods,” it says.