Climate councilor and economist Nicki Hutley said we could not allow ourselves not to act on climate change.
“The estimate is 10 times: the cost of inaction is 10 times the cost of what we need to do, certainly in Australia, in order to reach Net Zero,” he told 9News.com.com.au.
Hutley highlighted the future costs of natural disasters, such as cyclones, fires, floods and longer -term changes, such as the increase in sea level and extreme heat.
“These things are affecting our lives and livelihoods in multiple dimensions, and the cost of that absolutely eclipses everything we must do to make the transition,” he said.
“Now it is, an economic cost-benefit analysis, it is an absolute obvious.”
Part of that impact is already felt in the homes throughout the country and in the final result of the budget.
On a more personal level, more than 60,000 people have made insurance claims following what the Australian Insurance Council has classified as a “catastrophe.”
The Climate Council said that the cost of extreme climatic disasters had more than duplicated since the 1970s and that its greatest frequency was increasing premiums.
“The Australians are paying $ 30 billion adjusted to inflation more in the insurance that only 10 years ago,” experts said.
In 2022, the McKell Institute calculated how much extreme weather was costing the Australians per year. That figure was $ 888 on average in the previous 10 years, $ 1500 due to record floods in 2021-2022 and is expected to increase to $ 2500 by 2050.
Thousands of expected NSW fish deaths due to the ‘Blackwater’ cyclone
‘Marked warning’ for what will come
The warmest and highest seas, both driven by climate change caused by humans, were among a variety of factors that made Alfred more harmful, said the climate council.
The report cited research that indicated that heating oceans meant less cyclones but more extremes for Australia and asked leaders to act on climate change.
Alfred’s slow and winding road also meant more durable impacts, which increases damage and cost.
“This report is a clear warning that drifting towards the south of Ciclón Alfred can be a preview of what will come if we continue to prolong the use of coal, oil and gas,” the authors wrote.
“It is essential that we understand that such disasters are no longer simply ‘natural’.
“Unless we reduce climate pollution more and faster, we will be exposed to even more harmful disasters.”
Records before and after cyclone
The report highlighted a series of climatic records both in the formation of the Cyclone and its subsequent “chaotic” path on the coast and in the southeast of Queensland.
The record temperatures were recorded in the Coral Sea, where Alfred formed at the end of last month, in January, followed by the most careful room recorded in February.
The cyclone then generated its own records, for the largest wave ever registered in Gold Coast and most Queensland Ses calls in 24 hours, along with the daily rain numbers that are not observed in decades.
Nambour copied 365 millimeters with 433 millimeters in Diamond Valley, near Sunshine Coast Hinterland and Brisbane had 275 millimeters, their strongest rain in 51 years.
Upper Springbrook on the coast of Gold took significantly more than a rain meter during the storm week.
“Our climate is now more chaotic, unpredictable and dangerous due to climate pollution, which presents challenges for all of us,” said the climate council.
“The latest research shows for each degree of global warming, the Australians will experience 7-28 percent more rain for events per hour, and 2-15 percent more for longer events; a range significantly higher than the 5 percent typically explained in the flood planning standards of Australia.
“While Australia is now reducing climatic pollution, it is not quick enough or far enough to make our right part to limit global heating for less than 2 degrees. We must reduce climatic pollution quickly to reduce the expensive damage due to storms, as well as prepare the communities and our infrastructure for disasters that we cannot avoid.”
The new report highlighted the impact of the mental health of the system, particularly for those in more than two dozen areas of the local government in the southeast of Queensland that were also beaten by floods in 2022.
“Many of the places hit by Alfred are the same places that are still rebuilt and recover from the recent important flood events,” they said.
“These communities are being pushed to their limit by repeating extreme rainfall events.”
The researchers pointed out that the disaster occurred when climate science funded by the Government was threatened by President Donald Trump in the United States, after the previous Australian government “dismantled decades of institutional climate science capacity.”
“We cannot give us the luxury of flying blind in a volatile climate. Lives and our economy depend on timely and robust climatic information,” they said.
Each decision made by political leaders would play a “fundamental role in our career to ensure a safer future for our children” in a “critical decade for the action on climate.”
“Unless we act quickly to reduce climatic pollution, the destructive tropical cyclone and the south of Alfred can be remembered as an idea of a more dangerous and destructive future for vulnerable Australian communities,” said the authors.
