Labor told to act now on climate

IT is too late to avoid serious effects of climate change on Australia's economy, society and environment, the Gillard government has been warned.

IT is too late to avoid serious effects of climate change on Australia's economy, society and environment, the Gillard government has been warned.

The report came from a 114-page briefing on the impacts of global warming.

The special briefing to the incoming government, obtained by The Weekend Australian under Freedom of Information, said Australia must show global goodwill by putting a price on carbon and that delaying action would greatly increase the cost.

Large sections of the report were blacked out but it warned the government that it faced three challenges.

The first was the difficulty of meeting reduction targets and putting a price on carbon to do so.

The second was the fragile nature of community support for tackling climate change. The third was the growing need to adapt to the impact of climate change, particularly in coastal areas. Residential property worth $63 billion was at risk, along with some major airports and ports.

The briefing paper warned that maintaining Australia's prosperity depended on getting climate adaptation responses right. "Climate change impacts on infrastructure have the potential to significantly disrupt the national economy and communities in future if corrective action is not taken in the next few years," the briefing paper said.

Impacts on infrastructure alone could reduce Australia's gross national product by almost 2.5 per cent by 2100.

The briefing paper said the science on climate change was robust but sceptics should be expected to continue their opposition. Public education was the key to building support for action, it added.

Although there was public support for action, it did not necessarily translate into support for actions required to transform the economy to a low-pollution future, in particular the introduction of a carbon price.

The document said the Labor government's target set for carbon emission reductions of between 5 and 25 per cent from 2000 levels would be difficult to achieve, with current emissions in Australia running at 4 per cent above 2000 levels and rising at a rate of more than 1 per cent a year.

The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency said a carbon price was the only feasible way to achieve emission-reduction targets.

"Alternatives such as strict regulation of existing emitters would be even less likely to achieve community and business support," the document said.

The department said a robust global response to climate change was needed but it would be difficult for Australia to argue that other countries must take strong action if we were not prepared to take strong action ourselves.

"Therefore domestic mitigation is an essential part of a strategy for seeking a strong international response," it said. "Starting sooner rather than later reduces the overall cost of action because it avoids locking in further inappropriate technologies, and allows for a smoother transition."

The paper said the delay in implementing the government's climate-change response was already having significant impacts, particularly in the power sector, where uncertainty was leading to much-needed investment in new capacity being delayed.

"Continued uncertainty is leading to a 'wait and see' approach in relation to investments, resulting in sub-optimal investment and higher electricity prices with little environmental benefit," the paper said.

"Current indications are that if uncertainty surrounding power sector investments is not resolved by 2012, higher-cost electricity supply options are likely to be made to meet growing electricity demand."

The government was warned Australia was already facing some impacts of climate change and further impacts could not be avoided.

The paper said climate-change science was robust in concluding that Earth had warmed in recent decades, largely caused by emissions of greenhouse gases from human activity.

A greater, more rapid amount of warming would occur this century unless there was a major reduction in global emissions and the consequences of even a moderate degree of warming would be serious.

The paper said there was less scientific knowledge about the precise impacts of climate change at a regional or local level.

It said good relations between federal, state and local governments were essential and communicating the science would be a key task over the next three years.