Australia’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen is expected to declare that runaway global heating remains a national security threat and predict that countries vulnerable to sea level rise will look to Australia to provide “mobility with dignity” as the climate crisis deepens.
Bowen is also expected to tell parliament this Thursday that extreme weather events caused by climate change will also place increased strain on Australia’s energy networks, warning “this fragility could be used by hostile actors”.
Findings show that the government has refused to release a secret report from the Office of National Intelligence on how the climate crisis will fuel national security threats. But Bowen will highlight national and regional security risks in his annual climate statement on Thursday, arguing it will help fuel further global “political instability”.
The Albanese government is also required under legislation to make a statement to parliament about progress towards achieving Australia’s emissions reduction targets, and also report on relevant international developments. An independent assessment of progress by the Climate Change Authority will also be tabled in parliament on Thursday, as will updated emissions projections covering its first full year in office.
A snapshot of emissions projections released by Bowen last weekend suggested that Australia will likely cut its CO2 pollution to 42% below 2005 levels by 2030 – which is nearly in line with the government’s 43% reduction target.
Read also: Pope Francis cancels trip to COP 28 summit over health issues
Bowen is also expected to tell parliament on Thursday climate change presents “serious risks” to Australia and poses an “existential national security risk to our Pacific partners”. The minister will note security risks intensify “the further warming targets are exceeded”.
Bowen will warn the relationship between the level of warming and the security threats faced is not linear because threats “compound and expand exponentially the hotter the planet becomes”. Climate change will likely “accentuate economic factors already fuelling political instability, including risks to water insecurity across the globe”.
The accompanying report to parliament prepared by Bowen’s department warns that allowing warming beyond existing targets “could cross as‐yet‐unseen thresholds and trigger abrupt, cascading impacts” such as the destabilisation of ice sheets leading to rising sea levels and melting permafrost releasing massive amounts of CO2 and methane far exceeding global greenhouse gas budgets.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
