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![handle is hein.crs/govejtr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service
n irih legislative debat sinc 91914
Australia: Climate Change Issues
December 14, 2022
On a per capita basis Australians have the world's 10th
largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: according to the
World Bank, Australians emitted 15.2 metric tons of CO2
on a per capita basis in 2019. In 2019, Australia was the
16th largest emitter of all CO2 by country, accounting for
approximately 1.3% of the global total. Some experts note,
however, that Australia's total CO2 emissions would be
closer to 4% of world emissions if Australia's fossil fuel
exports are included. In 2021, Australia was the world's
leading exporter of coal, accounting for 35.7% of the
world's total coal exports, which was worth $43.9 billion.
Australia also is estimated to have the third largest reserves
of coal in the world, and is one of the world's largest
exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Impact of Climate Change
Observers note that some impacts from human-induced
climate change, such as an increase in the frequency of
extreme heat events, are already occurring in Australia, and
they expect current changes to continue and intensify in the
future. Average annual temperatures for Australia have
warmed 1.4 degrees Celsius since 1910.
The year 2019 was the hottest and driest year on record in
Australia. The number of extreme fire risk days has grown
over the past four decades. Black Summer bushfires
during the 2019-2020 bushfire season killed 33 people
(with an additional 455 deaths attributed to bushfire
smoke), burned more than 65,000 square miles of land,
released an estimated 186 million tons of carbon into the
atmosphere, and killed or displaced close to an estimated 3
billion animals. One report indicated that the emissions
from these fires were more than Australia emits in a typical
year by burning fossil fuels. Another study found that the
annual area burned across Australia has been increasing
over the past three decades.
Eastern Australia experienced four major floods in the 18
months prior to July 2022. When touring flood-damaged
communities in New South Wales (NSW) in July 2022,
Prime Minister Albanese stated, The science told us that if
we continued to not take action globally on climate change,
then these events, extreme weather events, would be more
often and more intense. And what we're seeing,
unfortunately, is that play out. The New South Wales
Climate Change Adaption Strategy states, Climate change
has already altered day-today weather patterns (in NSW)
and increased extreme weather events ... with the state
warming faster than the global average. Since the pre-
industrial period, NSW has already warmed by 1.4-1.60C
(CSIRO 2021) which is 1.4 times faster than the global
average.... This means that NSW is already experiencing
the impacts of climate change. NSW is home to just under
one-third of Australia's population and accounts for around
one-third of the country's economic output.
Figure I. Change in Net Emissions of Major
Economies [Excluding Land Use, Land Use Change
and Forestry (LULUCF) and Agriculture Emissions]
Untzdti&
The Great Barrier Reef, an important global carbon sink
and key part of Australia's tourism sector, suffered mass
coral bleaching in 2016, 2017, and 2020 due to rising ocean
temperatures likely caused by climate change. While
Australia has long experienced drought, bushfires, and
flooding, projections indicate Australia will likely
experience increasing temperatures, as well as more severe
floods, coral bleaching, ocean acidification, droughts, and
bushfires, as a consequence of climate change.
Domestkc Climate Politis
Australia has struggled to reconcile its economic reliance
on fossil fuels with the need to address climate change.
Australia's position on climate change has been
transformed as a result of the May 2022 election, which
marked a shift to candidates favoring action on climate
change. Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the right-
of-center Liberal-National Coalition famously brought a
lump of coal into parliament in 2017 and urged Australia to
not be afraid of coal. Morrison's lack of action to address
climate change is seen as a key reason for his electoral
defeat by Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party
(ALP), which won 77 of 151 seats in the House of
Representatives. Teal independents and the Green Party,
who urge more immediate action on climate change, also
made significant gains in the election. Labor campaigned
on a pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 43% by 2030
with a goal of net zero by 2050. (The United States has set a
target of 50%-52% reductions over 2005 levels in 2030.)](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govejtr0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)