MALLEE farmers are urging the Federal Government to take stronger action on climate change after a major new report set off what experts say are “deafening” alarm bells.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark climate science report on Monday, warning global temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels within the next two decades, and some changes are now “irreversible”.
Birchip mixed broadacre farmer and member of Farmers for Climate Action Bernadette Hogan said the report, which warns Australia can expect to see reduced rainfall and more extreme heat events, was “confronting”.
She called on the government to follow the recommendations of the report and aim for “negative zero (carbon emissions) by 2035”.
“From a broadacre (cropping) perspective, we’re going to be approaching cropping every year with minimal to no subsoil moisture. And so every year, when you put a crop in, your whole enterprise is relying on the fact that something’s got to come out of the sky,” she said.
For horticulturalists, water shortages are “already pricing some people out of the market,” she said. “You’re going to have people leaving these industries, because the value of the inputs are just going to be beyond reach.”
“It’s a really concerning situation when you see this, because a lot of our regional economy relies on the agricultural sector.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, speaking to reporters yesterday, did not commit to new climate targets in the wake of the report.
“We will meet and beat (Australia’s existing) targets,” he said.
Australia has ratified the Paris Agreement, which commits the country to reducing carbon emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Ms Hogan said the government must update its targets before the Glasgow Climate Change Conference in October.
For Mildura counsellor Mark Eckel, the report spelled “environmental catastrophe”, and was a recognition of the impacts of climate change people in the region have already been experiencing.
He said in his six terms on council, he had witnessed dust storms, drought, water shortages, and heat stress affecting elderly people.
For the region as a whole, climate change threatened “the viability of the farming sector”, a cornerstone of the community, he said.
“We need certainty for the farming communities,” he said. “The only way that is going to happen is by the federal government getting a policy together that gets rid of the knee-jerk reactions on the run.”
UN secretary general António Guterres warned the report was “a code red for humanity”.
“The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”
