Reports and Information

Since the turn of the century we have seen more and more extreme weather events fuelled by climate change. Record-breaking floods, devastating storms, deadly heatwaves and catastrophic fires.

Almost every community in Australia has had direct experience with climate-fuelled disasters. Since 2019 four out of five local government areas have been impacted by disasters. Many have been hit multiple times – experiencing fires, floods and destructive storms.

For years, Emergency Leaders for Climate Action has led calls for governments to help prepare communities for impending climate fuelled disasters. The first step in preparing communities and emergency management services for worsening disasters is equipping them with detailed information on the climate risks they will face in future.

Today, the Albanese Government has released the nation’s first comprehensive National Climate Risk Assessment. It’s an early warning for all Australians. It shows the impacts of climate change on communities across the country:

• Dangerous fire weather days will happen more often, with longer fire seasons and the potential for megafires in southern and eastern parts of the nation. Higher temperatures and drier conditions will increase the risk of bushfires in forested areas until mid-century.
• Our coastal communities will be hit by flooding from sea level rise: At +3.0°C of warming some communities will experience up to 257 days per year on average of flooding.
• Emergency responders will face greater physical and mental health burden from responding to more frequent and potentially simultaneous disasters. 
• By mid-century we’ll see more extreme weather events occur at the same time and follow in quick succession – causing greater disaster impacts and overwhelming emergency management services.
• Disaster recovery costs will increase by at least 500% by the end of the century. 

The results of the Climate Risk Assessment are confronting but not unexpected, aligning with warnings from emergency leaders and scientists for many years

The Climate Risk Assessment must act as an urgent warning that reverberates around Australia. As retired emergency service chiefs, we know the sound of a warning siren when we hear one — for Australian families, communities and governments, this is it. We must act to slash climate pollution and better prepare our communities for the climate risks we already face today, which will only worsen in future.

The Albanese Government will soon decide on Australia’s 2035 climate target. This report informs the government on the full repercussions of not doing enough: more frequent and severe climate-fuelled disasters, here and across the globe – on top of what is already locked in for decades due to the historic burning of fossil fuels. 

The safest path is to set the strongest possible 2035 climate target – and that means, net zero by 2035 or as close to it as possible. Make no mistake: every fraction of a degree of warming matters and will be measured in lives and livelihoods saved, fewer families forced from their homes and less strain on our already stretched emergency services. 

This also means that the Albanese Government, alongside its state and territory counterparts must stop approving and extending the lives of coal, oil and gas projects.

At the same time, we must prepare our communities, businesses and emergency services for worsening climate-fuelled disasters we will experience in coming years due to pollution already released by the historic burning of fossil fuels. Every dollar spent on preparation and disaster risk reduction saves between $2 and $11 in avoided recovery costs.

This means working directly with communities that will experience worsening climate impacts to understand the risks they face, their vulnerability to them, and the steps they can take to better prepare.

The National Adaptation Plan, released alongside the Risk Assessment, is a start. But to truly safeguard Australians, it must be backed by a fully funded national strategy to protect communities before disasters strike, support them through disaster response and recovery, and in worst-case scenarios, move them out of harm’s way.

It is going to cost a lot to cope with the climate crisis and for some communities this will simply be unmanageable. This further underlines the critical imperative to slash climate pollution today. Prevention will always be better than cure. Ignoring or acting timidly on this siren call for urgent action on climate will represent a serious failure in national leadership.

Comments to support this statement:

Greg Mullins AO, AFSM, former Commissioner of Fire & Rescue NSW: 

“The National Climate Risk Assessment confirms what emergency service leaders have warned for years: fire seasons are now longer and more intense, floods keep breaking records, and storms are more ferocious. Our communities are in the firing line and our emergency responders are struggling to cope. 

This Risk Assessment demonstrates how urgently we need to slash climate pollution. A strong target, as close to net zero as possible, by 2035 is critical to help protect Australians and our economy from worsening climate disasters in the future. We also need meaningful investment to help communities withstand extreme weather events that are already locked in, and getting worse.”

Major General Peter Dunn AO (retired), Former Commissioner, ACT Emergency Services Authority: 

“In 2019 we, as former emergency service leaders, tried in vain to warn the then Morrison Government of the disastrous Black Summer fires on the horizon. At the time, I had no idea that my own community, Lake Conjola, would be on the frontline of those fires. As the fires bore down on us with almost no warning, we lost power, water and road access. We had nowhere to evacuate, so we went to the ocean as 89 of our neighbours’ houses burned to the ground. 

For the first time, we have a comprehensive national assessment of the climate risks we face. We cannot ignore this warning. Australians will expect our political leaders to take meaningful action. That means setting the strongest possible 2035 target to cut climate pollution, but also doing all we can to prepare communities for the climate-fuelled disasters they will inevitably see in future.”

About Emergency Leaders for Climate Action 

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) is a coalition of 38 former fire and emergency service leaders from every Australian state and territory demanding stronger government action on climate pollution that is driving more frequent, damaging extreme weather disasters, better resourcing for climate adaptation, community resilience, and frontline fire and emergency services. 

https://emergencyleadersforclimateaction.org.au/