Climate change in Australia

Australia has the Climate Commission. New Zealand has nothing and is silent about climate change.

The Angry Summer

Australian Climate Commision,

April, 2013

The Climate Commission has received questions from the community and the media seeking to understand the influence of climate change on the recent extreme summer weather.

Download The Angry Summer images here

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Download The Angry Summer key facts here.

This report provides a summary of the extreme weather of the 2012/13 summer and the influence of climate change on such events.

Key facts:

• The Australian summer over 2012 and 2013 has been defined by extreme weather events across much of the continent, including record-breaking heat, severe bushfires, extreme rainfall and damaging flooding. Extreme heatwaves and catastrophic bushfire conditions during the Angry Summer were made worse by climate change.

• All weather, including extreme weather events is influenced by climate change. All extreme weather events are now occurring in a climate system that is warmer and moister than it was 50 years ago. This influences the nature, impact and intensity of extreme weather events.

• Australia’s Angry Summer shows that climate change is already adversely affecting Australians. The significant impacts of extreme weather on people, property, communities and the environment highlight the serious consequences of failing to adequately address climate change.

• It is highly likely that extreme hot weather will become even more frequent and severe in Australia and around the globe, over the coming decades. The decisions we make this decade will largely determine the severity of climate change and its influence on extreme events for our grandchildren.

• It is critical that we are aware of the influence of climate change on many types of extreme weather so that communities, emergency services and governments prepare for the risk of increasingly severe and frequent extreme weather.

Extensive information and an interactive map of the records of Summer 2012/13 can be found on the Bureau of Meteorology’s website.

Click here to view the interactive map.