Australia ignoring ‘devastating threats’ - NEWS.com.au

A group of Australian former Defence chiefs has said the government is “missing in action” and has no plans for multiple “national security threats”.

A group of high ranking former defence and security officials has said Australia is sleepwalking into a bevy of potentially “devastating” national security threats.

They have warned that instability in the Pacific, South East Asia and China could all pose major issues for Australia both militarily, diplomatically and economically as the impact of climate change takes its toll.

One of the starkest possibilities is that up to a billion people could be displaced with some of those heading to Australia.

“The failure of leadership and inaction by Australian governments have left our nation ill prepared for the security implications of devastating climate impacts at home and in the Asia Pacific, the highest-risk region in the world,” former Australian Defence Force chief Admiral Chris Barrie said.

He is one of six authors — most of whom held senior positions in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) or Department of Defence — of a report released today entitled Missing in Action: Responding to Australia’s climate and security failure.

Produced by the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG), which bills itself as a nonpartisan network of security professionals measuring the threats to Australia from climate change, the paper urges the Government to examine how rising temperatures could pose a threat to the country’s borders and backyard.

AUSTRALIA ‘MISSING IN ACTION’

“Australia has been missing in action on climate security risks. We are falling well behind our allies and failing in our responsibility to protect our own people,” Mr Barrie said.

“The dangers that climate change impacts pose to international peace and security are real and present.

“In vulnerable countries, climate-fuelled water and food insecurity have mixed with instability, leading to the collapse of governments and civil wars, as we’ve seen in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.”

Previously the group has said that Australia was at one end of “disaster ally,” an area of the globe stretching from our shores to India via South East Asia that was particularly vulnerable to disruption caused by climate change.

The new report raised the possibility up to a billion of the world’s 7.6 billion people leaving their homes and lands due to climate change.

ONE BILLION PEOPLE

It laid bare a scenario where the globe warmed by 3C by 2060 which would be “catastrophic” for the world’s poorest three billion people many of whom are subsistence farmers.

Drought could make some of the land unable to be farmed while low lying areas around the Mekong in Vietnam and Ganges on the Indian subcontinent could be flooded.

“(Under this scenarios) deadly heat conditions will persist for more than 100 days per year in West Africa, Central America, the Middle East and South-East Asia, which together with land degradation, aridification, conflicts over land and water, and rising sea levels will contribute to up to a billion people being displaced,” the paper stated.

“Refugee conventions may give way to walls and blockades.”

The report added that the “consequences for Australia will be enormous”.

AUSTRALIA’S CLIMATE DITHERING

The paper calls for a “rapid decarbonising” of the country as Australia’s effort to help curb climate extremes worldwide. This has proved a struggle with two thirds of the nation’s electricity needs met by burning coal.

While many peer countries have signed up to targets of net zero emissions by 2050, Australia has yet to do so. The Government is coming under increasing pressure to sign up to a goal of net zero before a key global climate summit to be held in Glasgow in November.

The recent Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) report, released last month by the United Nations, confirmed the world had warmed by 1.1 degrees celsius, with Australia actually warming by a much higher 1.4C.

“The IPCC report demonstrates, we are likely to underestimate the scale and scope of the security risks posed by climate change because they have not been fully assessed by our governments,” Mr Barrie said.

Domestically, the report cited reduced water inflows into the Murray-Darling Basin that could lead to water insecurity and reduced food production.

More frequent and intense natural disasters, like floods and bushfires, could tie up ADF resources.

Overseas, Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels is creating tensions in Pacific nations at risk of rising sea levels and that is being exploited by China which is busily increasing its influence.

Geopolitical tensions in Asia could also rise as China and its surrounding neighbours fight for control of shrinking water resources by, for instance, building dams that could limit drinking water available elsewhere.

AUSTRALIA SUCKED INTO ‘GLOBAL EMERGENCY’

Even if Australian was not directly threatened by future conflicts abroad the disruption could still be huge.

“Australia’s supply chains are precarious, being a distant island in a hyper-connected global economy,” said Mr Barrie.

“In a global emergency where supply chains are disrupted, domestic oil supplies would last only weeks. If that coincided with extreme climatic impacts, as may well occur, civilian and military capacity to provide disaster relief would be severely compromised.”

Among other actions, the ASLCG has said the government needed to urgently conduct a comprehensive “whole of nation climate a security risk assessment” and establish a department dedicated to “climate threat”.

“Climate-security risks will blow up in the future, and we must be better informed and prepared,” said Mr Barrie.

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2021-09-01 14:08:40Z
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