2005 - Cabinet Ministers Explicitly Warned Australia's Right-Wing Government Of Warming Impacts; Nothing Really Changed

[hatrack]

EDIT

A cabinet submission in August 2005 from the then foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, and the then environment minister, Ian Campbell, described the pace of global temperature movements as “unprecedented in human history” and said global concentrations of carbon dioxide were 30% higher than at any time in the previous 400,000 years. Cabinet was told the risk extended to Australia’s water resources, agricultural systems, electricity supply, transport infrastructure, human health, coastal and urban communities, and tourism.

“The magnitude of climate change in Australia, combined with marginal rainfall in many of our key agricultural areas and a heavy reliance on irrigation, is likely to make Australia more vulnerable to climate change than most developed countries, including the United States (US) and many European countries,” Downer and Campbell’s submission says.

Along with a lengthy background document on climate science from officials at the Bureau of Meteorology, the submission said water supply could come under significant pressure, in part due to reduced rainfall and more severe droughts across south-western and south-eastern Australia.

EDIT

In 2003 – two years before the period covered by the newly released papers – Howard had vetoed a submission from ministers proposing an emissions trading scheme, citing concerns from industry leaders. A year later, the cabinet rejected recommendations to strengthen the country’s renewable energy target, designed to reduce emissions by encouraging more renewable electricity generation. By 2007, as the opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, increased pressure on the Coalition over climate, Howard changed his position to support a trading scheme, after a report by his departmental secretary, Peter Shergold. Philip Ruddock, who was Howard’s attorney general in 2005, said at a briefing on the release of the papers last month the government was very aware of the emerging scientific consensus on climate change.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/01/cabinet-papers-reveal-alexander-downer-warned-of-dire-climate-change-outcomes-in-2005

[GreenWave]

1. They would have to know how to think, rather than inflame, so they make all suffer their ignorance.