Climate-driven
disasters cost Victorians $4 billion
Climate-driven
disasters such as bushfires and floods have cost Victorian taxpayers
more than $4 billion over the last decade, it has emerged, as the
Napthine Government released its plan for Victoria to prepare for the
future impacts of climate change.
19
March, 2013
The
plan – released on Tuesday in state parliament – aims to manage
risks to Victoria of increase bushfires, heatwaves, droughts and
floods as climate change intensifies.
But
environment groups and the opposition have slammed the document
saying it is substanceless and contains no new actions to prepare
Victoria for more extreme weather.
It
comes as Victoria's Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability,
Kate Auty, released an annual audit of greenhouse gas emissions from
state government departments and agencies. Professor Auty found that
overall government greenhouse gas emissions in 2011-12 dropped from
the previous year due to less emissions from air and road travel.
But
she also found that the government significantly slashed the average
amount of electricity it purchased as GreenPower from 26 per cent to
13.9 per cent in 2011-12, meaning office building emissions rose.
Launching
the state adaptation plan yesterday, state Climate Change Minister
Ryan Smith said it would deliver improved risk planning and stronger
partnerships with local government to build Victoria's resilience to
climate change.
Mr
Smith said he had committed $6 million to support local government
action on climate adaptation. The plan also sets up a committee to
coordinate adaptation policy across government.
The
plan outlines a number of risks for Victoria from climate change
including compromised transport networks, damage to electricity
distribution infrastructure, and reduced water availability.
It
says the Treasury Department has estimated the cost to government for
recovery after natural disasters as more than $4 billion over the
last ten years. It added that research showed projected increases of
bushfires due to climate change would cost the Victorian agriculture
sector an extra $1.4 billion and the forestry industry $2.8 billion
by 2050.
Labor
environment spokeswoman Lisa Neville said the report outlined the
devastating impacts of climate change but the government had
delivered a plan with no new action and no new ways of reducing or
management of future risks.
Environment
Victoria campaigner Victoria McKenzie-McHarg said "the document
is not so much a plan for action as it is a literature review of the
government's previous activities and those of other levels of
government."
The
adaptation plan is required to be prepared under the state's climate
change laws brought in during the dying days of the Brumby
Government.
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