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Australia Climate Report

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Australia is diverse in terms of climate, but needs to speed up its climate change efforts to avoid major disasters.
Written by RelevantStuff

The Climate Council of Australia released its report containing shocking (and some relieving) facts. This report was released before last week, when Australia were ranked third-last in Climate Change performance by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe, released at the Paris climate summit.

Here are some of the highlights of the Climate Council of Australia report:

  • Clean energy investment was raised by 43 per cent on a global level. In Australia, investments were reduced by 35 per cent to just $3.7 billion. China witnessed a raise of 32 per cent.
  • Some small European countries like Iceland and Norway have gone almost fully green, with nearly 100 per cent of each of the countries running on renewable electricity. Other leaders are New Zealand (80%), Austria (68%), Sweden (62%), Denmark (43%), and Germany, Spain and Italy employing renewable energy for nearly one-third
  • Renewable energy is emerging as a job market, with 7.7 million jobs globally, which is almost double of what it used to be.
  • In Australia, South Australia is currently generating 40% of its electricity with the help of solar and wind energy. And while over a million households in Australia already have rooftop solar panels, the nation still needs to turn to renewable sources at a mass scale to avoid any environmental disaster. Australia is a country with great potential for solar and wind energy and shall seize this opportunity to convert this potential into more clean emissions, and job opportunities, according to Amanda McKenzie, the council’s chief.
australia coasts

Australia is diverse in terms of climate, but needs to speed up its climate change efforts to avoid major disasters.

  • According to the report, between 1978 and 2013, global fire seasons increased by around 20 per cent. Fire equipment which was shared between northern and southern hemisphere because of climatic differences, is falling short because of overlapping of fire seasons. According to McKenzie, heat waves are now hotter, longer and more frequent than ever before. However, she hopes for the number of firefighters to double by 2030.
  • The USA witnessed more than 50,000 fires in the last season. The bushfire seasons are also a month longer than what their duration used to be a decade or so ago.
  • Most of the coastal regions will experience a rise in temperatures more than the maximum median. In fact, The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre predicts above normal bushfire for most of the east coast, Western Australia and southern Victoria for the summer ahead.

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