Climate Science

Climate change (aka Global Warming): The science

Climate change could have the following impacts on Australia:

• More intense storms and tropical cyclones
• Water resources will be further stressed with a greater likelihood of droughts
• The Great Barrier Reef at risk due to rising sea temperatures
• Rising sea levels threatening Kakadu National Park and parts of the east coastline

Dangerous Climate Change
Click here for a comprehensive guide to climate change. This recent CANA presentation explains the science behind climate change and looks at the impacts, Australia's role, and what you can do.

How Will Climate Change Affect Australia?
Australia is a large continent, and each area of the country will be affected differently as world weather patterns are affected by human activity. Click on the below links to see how climate change will affect your region and the rest of Australia.

• CSIRO’s Future Climate Change Scenarios by Region:summary and full report
• Tasmanian Coastal Vulnerability to Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

What is the Greenhouse Effect? What does it all mean?
What is a greenhouse gas? What is the greenhouse effect? Is Australia’s climate really changing? To find the answers and more, visit the CSIRO’s Atmospheric Research Group website: CSIRO has answers to your greenhouse questions.

For those who question the link between humans and climate change, New Scientist provides this useful resource.

How do we know what’s really happening with our climate?
One of the keys to finding out more about climate change is in recording and analysing the weather. The Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology records weather information such as rainfall and temperatures from all over Australia, so they’re in a good position to tell us if anything’s changing! See what the Bureau of Meteorology is saying

International Studies on Climate Change
It has been recognised that the problem of climate change is a global one, and in 1988 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Association (WMO) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC regularly publishes scientific studies on various aspects of climate change. To see a summary of their 2001 report, click here. For more about the IPCC, go to the IPCC website

Climate analysis Indicator Tool

• The excellent Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) from World Resources Institute allows you to easily compare almost any greenhouse statistic across countries http://cait.wri.org

Australia's contribution to climate change

How much greenhouse gas does Australia produce?
The Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) produces a National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (NGGI) each year, detailing the volumes of greenhouse gases emitted in Australia each year. The most recent report is for 2004 (report published May 2006).

How High Are Australia's Emissions?
Australia has the highest emissions per capita of any country in the developed world. Per capita our emissions are 6 times as high as China's and we emit more greenhouse gases than Indonesia (with 10 times our population).Why is it so?? Read The Australia Institute has a report on Australia's High Emissions

Are Australia’s greenhouse gas emission levels changing?
Since 1990 Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in the areas of stationary energy (mostly power generation) and transport have increased by a massive 34% and 28% respectively. And what are the projections? Total emissions up by 23%, and energy emissions up by a whopping 66%!

Climate change: who's responsible?

Who's responsible for the global warming we've got already?

Greenhouse gases from human activity have been accumulating in the atmosphere for at least 150 years. Developed countries are responsible for over 70% of the cumulative CO2 emissions since 1950. That's why the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says that "the developed country Parties should take the lead in combating climate change". Fair enough. If we created the mess, we should be the first to start fixing it. Australia is a signatory to the UNFCCC, and you can see from the table below we do more than our share of polluting! In fact Australia pollutes IN TOTAL as much greenhouse gas as Indonesia (yes - Indonesia with 10 times our population!)

Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2000

This paper from the Climate Action Network gives more details on the responsibilities for the global warming we are facing today.

Source: Reworked table from Pew Centre : Climate Data: insights and observations Kevin Baumert & Jonathan Pershing, December 2004
Note: MtC is millions of tons of carbon equivalent. Emissions include CO2 from fossil fuel and cement (not land-use related Emissions) as well as 5 non-CO2 gases. GHG data are aggregated by WRI based on CDIAC and IEA data for Co2, EDGAR and EPA data for CH4 and N2O, and EPA data for HFC, PFC and SF6. Population and GDP data are from the World Bank.