The public won’t accept that. It also needs to be understood that Australian action alone will have little effect on the climate change impacts that we experience.
The actions of China, Russia, India and the United States will overwhelmingly decide this.
How we respond is important, and so is how we conduct the public debate.
At times, it seems to be drifting into a parallel universe.
UN climate change executive secretary Simon Stiell told Australians this week that fruit will be a “once-a-year treat” if we don’t have more ambitious emissions reduction targets.
This comes on the back of 60 Minutes’ reporting of Climate Council of Australia claims that Shepparton and Mooroopna will be uninhabitable due to the impact of climate change — alarmist nonsense that doesn’t stand up to any level of scrutiny.
The Climate Council of Australia is opaque when it comes to its major donors, but is completely transparent about being anti-fossil fuel.
It wants a renewable-based transition immediately, which would damage Australia’s economy and have little impact on global climate.
The claim that Shepparton is at most risk of becoming unliveable due to climate change and that 90 per cent of properties will be uninsurable by 2030 is not new. The same claim was made in 2022.
The disclaimer in the report the claims are drawn from is that it represents the “…views of the Climate Council of Australia Ltd based on climate risk analysis undertaken by Climate Valuation and should not be taken as constituting professional advice. It is intended only as a general guide; it may contain generalisations.”
It is worse than generalised; it is flawed and unscientific scaremongering.
No two floods are the same, but living at the junction of rivers and creeks we have learnt a lot about them.
Estates built after 1974 were flooded in 2022 (as the roads and reserves are designed to do) but no homes got wet.
Homes were inundated in older estates, and yes, engineering and other solutions should be considered.
The flood risk and the need to adapt the built environment is constantly managed by Greater Shepparton City Council and catchment authorities, and from what I saw on the ground during the 2022 floods, they do a great job.
We are responding as a nation to climate change, but sowing fear to accelerate emissions reduction that would adversely impact our economy should not be part of the public discourse.
I have lived in the Shepparton region all my life — it has been and will remain one of the most liveable places anywhere in the world.
How we manage the energy transition is critical to our region, as energy is the economy.
We need reliable, affordable and stable energy.
Renewable energy is a part of that, but the rollout of wind, solar and the transmission lines to deliver the energy they produce should not come at the expense of productive agricultural land and the environment.
Also, the intermittent nature of this type of energy generation means that an over reliance on it threatens the stability of the grid.
This has been seen in other nations.
Communities must continue to have a say in how these projects impact them.
The proposals should be forced to stand up to planning and environmental scrutiny the same as any other project.
An emissions reduction path that makes energy less reliable and more expensive risks our competitiveness and standard of living.
Ultimately, it could also force industry offshore, taking their emissions with them, but also the jobs and economic activity.
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