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1 [1] (March 11, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govcaou0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FF.~ March 11, 2020 Australia: Fires Highlight Government's Climate Challenge The recent devastating bush fires in Australia highlight the country's growing dilemma over climate change. Australia's economy remains heavily weighted toward extractive industries, leading to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions linked to climate change. A growing portion of voters see climate change as a threat to Australia's vital interests. Many are pressuring Prime Minister Scott Morrison's right of center Liberal-National Party Coalition to take additional steps to reduce emissions and combat climate change. Figure I. Australia Fires Sept. 2019-jan. 2020 . . . . . . . . . . Source: Created by CRS using data from NASA (FIRMS MODIS and/or VIIRS Fire/Hotspot) and ESRI. The Fh-e According to the Australian government, Australia is one of the most fire prone regions in the world. Nonetheless, the 2019-2020 fires were extraordinary. (See Figure 1.) More than 27.2 million acres of vegetation, 33 people, an estimated one billion animals, and over 2,500 homes were lost to bushfires in Australia in the 2019-2020 fire season. (Fire Season normally lasts from October 1 to March 31.) The area burned is larger than South Korea and 46% larger than the area burned in the Amazon in 2019. Sydney's air quality became a health risk, and parts of the nation's capital Canberra had to be evacuated at one point. The Australian army was called to assist firefighters, and the navy evacuated people by sea from coastal communities cut off by fire. The New York Times reported the estimated cost to Australia's economy to be between $3 and $3.5 billion. C~aa 0,-,,ngand Wkfi e h Several researchers have found that projected climate changes show a trend towards more dangerous fire weather conditions in Australia. The year 2019 was the hottest year on record for Australia. (See Figure 2.) The average daytime maximum temperature in Australia was reportedly 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above average. Australia's average rainfall in 2019 was the lowest since records began in 1900 and was 40% less than normal. 2019 was also the first year that the hottest and driest years in Australia overlapped. The Australian government reports that their Forest Fire Danger Index has increased at 16 of 38 sites over the period from 1973 to 2010. According to the Australian government, surface temperatures over land and surrounding seas increased by 3.2°F since the beginning of the 20th century. The frequency of very warm months has increased, as has average rainfall. More frequent extreme heat and flooding events raise risks to human health and to livestock production. Sea levels vary significantly year-to- year, mostly associated with natural variability, though the rising trend is less than the global average sea level rise. According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, [c]limate change is the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef' due to bleaching during high temperature episodes and severe weather. Australia's Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment has found that Australia faces significant environmental and economic impacts from climate change across a number of sectors. These developments, particularly the recent fires, appear to be affecting Australians' attitudes towards climate change. According to a 2019 Lowy poll, Australians ranked climate change as the first of ten possible threats to Australia's vital interests over the next ten years, and 64% of those polled view climate change as a critical threat. This was an increase of six percentage points from 2018 and an 18 point rise since 2014. The Lowy poll also found that 59% of Australians polled believe the opposition Labor Party would do a better job of managing Australia's response to climate change than the Coalition. Prime Minister Morrison appears to some analysts to have won the May 2019 election in part because he emphasized the costs of climate action rather than the threat from climate change itself. However, the fires of 2019 and 2020 may have shifted many Australians' perceptions of the relative costs. According to a Newspoll, Morrison's approval rating dropped 8 points from December 2019 to January 2020. The fires appear to have reignited past debates within the Liberal-National Coalition on climate change policy. In December 2019, the New South Wales Young Liberals called on the government to make changes to address the extraordinary challenges presented by human-induced climate change. In February 2020, Morrison reportedly faced opposition from within the Coalition party room over his government's climate change policy. Several Coalition Members of Parliament (MP) reportedly argued that the gognpo goo g , q 'S a X 11LULANJILiN,