ANGRY SUMMER
2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE
SUPER-CHARGINGEXTREME WEATHERCLIMATECOUNCIL.ORG.AU

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Professor Will Steffen
Climate Councillor

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Angry Summer 2016/17: Climate Change Super-charging Extreme Weather
by Professor Will Steffen, Andrew Stock, Dr David Alexander and Dr Martin
Rice.

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Dr Martin RiceHead of Research,
Climate Council

CLIMATE COUNCIL

Contents
Key Findings..................................................................................................................................................................................... ii
Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................................... iv
1.

2.

3.

Temperature Records Tumble, Yet Again: Summer of 2016/17...................................................................................1
1.1 Capital Cities

3

1.2 Regional Australia

5

Impacts of Extreme Heat ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
2.1 Health6

2.2 Energy Systems

7

2.3 Ecosystems

8

2.4 Bushfires

9This is the Critical Decade to Reduce Emissions......................................................................................................... 10

References

13

Image Credits

16

i

ii

ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHERKey Findings
1
2
The Australian summer of 2016/17 marked
the return of the Angry Summer with recordbreaking heat especially in the east of thenation. The Angry Summer was characterised
by intense heatwaves, hot days and bushfires
in central and eastern Australia, while heavy
rainfall and flooding affected the west of
the country. Noteworthy records from thissummer include:›› In just 90 days, more than 205 records were broken
around Australia.
›› The state-wide mean temperature in summer
was the hottest for New South Wales since records
began, with temperatures 2.57°C above average.
›› Sydney had its hottest summer on record with amean temperature 2.8°C above average.
›› Brisbane had its hottest summer on record interms of mean temperature at 26.8°C, equivalent to
1.7°C above average.
›› Canberra had its hottest summer on record interms of daytime temperatures and recorded
temperatures of at least 35°C on 18 days, already far
higher than what is projected for 2030 (12 days).
›› Adelaide experienced its hottest Christmas day in
70 years at 41.3°C.
›› Moree in regional New South Wales experienced
54 consecutive days of temperatures 35°C or
above, a record for the state.
›› Perth had its highest summer total rainfall onrecord of 192.8 mm.

Climate change is driving hotter, longer lasting
and more frequent heatwaves.
›› The 2016/17 extreme summer heat in New South
Wales was at least 50 times more likely to occur
due to climate change.
›› Protecting Australians from the impacts ofsummers with relentless extreme heat requires
the uptake of cheap, clean and efficient renewableenergy and the phasing out fossil fuels.
›› Commissioning new fossil fuel (coal, oil andgas) projects is incompatible with limiting thedangerous impacts of climate change, such as thefailure of critical infrastructure.

KEY FINDINGS

3

4

Escalating extreme weather is putting
Australia’s ageing energy system underintense pressure.

The costs of the extreme heat are clear with
reduced work productivity, increasing risk of
bushfires and escalating damage to the Great
Barrier Reef.

›› Australia’s energy system is ageing, inefficient andpolluting, and during the Angry Summer proved
unable to cope with escalating extreme weather,like heatwaves.
›› Days of extreme heat and heatwaves will become
even more frequent and severe in Australia, andwill increase the risks to critical infrastructure (e.g.
electricity), the economy, health and ecosystems.

iii›› The impacts of the last Angry Summer of 2013/14
cost the Australian economy approximately $8
billion through absenteeism and a reduction inwork productivity. The economic impact fromthe 2016/17 Angry Summer has not yet been
quantified.
›› Above-average sea surface temperatures thissummer have triggered a new bleaching outbreakon the Great Barrier Reef. This follows the worst
mass bleaching event in the reef’s history in 2016.
›› Extreme fire weather is increasing in Australia’s
southeast. During the most severe heatwave of thisrecent Australian summer, nearly 100 bushfires
were ignited and raged through parts of inland
New South Wales.

climatecouncil.org.au

iv

ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHERIntroduction
The Australian summer of 2016/17
marked the return of the Angry
Summer with record-breaking heat,
especially in the east of the nation.
The summer was characterised byintense heatwaves, hot days andbushfires in central and eastern
Australia, while heavy rainfall andflooding affected the west of thecountry, indicative of a warming
climate holding more moisture in theatmosphere. This summer follows
hot on the heels of previous Angry
Summer in 2012/13 and 2013/14, with
Australians again enduring recordbreaking extreme weather events
driven by climate change.

Climate change– driven largelyby the burning ofcoal, oil and gas –is cranking up theintensity of extreme
weather events.

2016 was the hottest year on record, withmany heat records broken around the world.
It was the third consecutive year in which
the global average temperature record was
broken. The Australian cities of Sydney andDarwin had their hottest years on record(maximum and minimum temperatures),while Brisbane and Canberra had their record
hottest and equal third-hottest years (annual
mean temperature), respectively (BoM 2017d).
Above-average sea surface temperatures thissummer offered no reprieve to our iconic
reefs under threat from climate change, witha new bleaching outbreak underway in the
Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere in Australia.
Climate change – driven largely by risingatmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations
from the burning of coal, oil and gas – isincreasing temperatures and cranking up
the intensity of extreme weather events
globally and in Australia. The global heatrecord of 2016, along with the recordbreaking summer of 2016/17, is part of thelong-term warming trend (Figure 1). Australia
has warmed by about 1°C since 1910, withthe majority of warming occurring sincethe 1950s (CSIRO and BoM 2016). Global
temperatures have already reached 1.1°C
above pre-industrial levels (UK Met Office2017), and the accumulating energy in theatmosphere is affecting all extreme weather
events (Trenberth 2012). Climate change isdriving global warming at a rate 170 times
faster than the baseline rate over the past
7,000 years (Steffen et al. 2016).

INTRODUCTION

Climate change is worsening the impacts
from heatwaves and hot weather and isputting a strain on critical infrastructure.
This summer alone has shown thevulnerability of the electricity grid toheatwaves, with power outages during peaktimes in South Australia during a severe
February heatwave, while New South Wales
narrowly avoided widespread outages several
days later. The hot weather, combined withvery dry conditions, led to tinderbox fireconditions in New South Wales in earlyFebruary prior to, and during, the most severe
heatwave of the Australian summer. During
the heatwave itself, nearly 100 bushfires were
ignited and raged through parts of inland
New South Wales.

Despite the urgent need for greenhouseemissions to be trending strongly
downwards, Australia’s emissions have risen
0.8% in the last year (Commonwealth ofAustralia 2016a), with much of the emissions
coming from the electricity sector. This
rise puts into serious doubt whether even
Australia’s very weak emissions reduction
target of 26-28% by 2030 can be achieved.
The only approach to slowing and eventuallyhalting the increasing trend of heat-related
extreme weather is to rapidly increase theuptake of renewable energy and to phase-out
all forms of coal fired power plants, as well as
phasing out other fossil fuels.

1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7

Temperature Anomaly (°C)

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

Year

Figure 1: Column graph of the annual global temperature anomalies through to 2016, relative to the global annual averagetemperature for the 20th century (1901-2000). Data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

v

1

ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHER

1.

Temperature Records
Tumble, Yet Again:
Summer of 2016/17
In just 90 days, more than 205
records were broken around
Australia. Heatwaves and hot days
scorched the major population
centres of Adelaide, Brisbane (Figure2), Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney,as well as the rural and regional
heartlands of eastern Australia.
The most severe heatwave of this Angry
Summer began around January 31 andcontinued until February 12, with the highest
temperatures recorded from February 9-12
(BoM 2017u). This heatwave was made twice
as likely to occur because of climate change(Perkins-Kirkpatrick et al. 2017), while theextreme heat in New South Wales over theentire summer season was at least 50 times
as likely to occur because of climate change(King et al. 2017). The hot weather, combinedwith very dry conditions, led to tinderbox
fire conditions in New South Wales in earlyFebruary and resulted in nearly 100 bushfires
raging across the state (BBC 2017).
This summer a number of long-standing
temperature records were broken. Thissection highlights some of these records forboth a number of Australian capital cities andfor the states of Queensland and New South
Wales, where the heat had its biggest impact.
At least 19 sites across those two states, with40 or more years of data, set new records forthe number of summer days with maximum
temperatures of at least 40°C (BoM 2017u).
Figure 3 summarises some of the extreme
events to hit Australia during the Angry
Summer of 2016/17.

Figure 2: The hot Brisbane sun – Brisbane had its hottest (mean temperature) summer on record in 2016/17.

CHAPTER 01
TEMPERATURE RECORDS TUMBLE, YET AGAIN: SUMMER OF 2016/17

2016/17ANGRY

2IN JUST 90 DAYS OVER 205 RECORDS BROKENSUMMER

Snapshot of the 205+ records from the summer of 2016/17:
Record highest
summer rainfall:
89 locations

Record highest
summer temperatures:
66 locations

Queensland’s second
hottest summer on record

A number of locations in the
Kimberley had their wettest
December on record

Record number ofsummer days 35°C or
warmer: 50 locations

Moree had 54 consecutive
days of 35°C or above, a newrecord for New South Wales

A record run of 30
consecutive days above
30°C in Brisbane

Nearly 100 bushfires raging
simultaneously in New
South Wales during the
February heatwave, with atleast 30 homes destroyed

Hottest summer onrecord for Brisbane
in terms of mean
temperature

Hottest summer
temperatures onrecord for almost 45%
of New South WalesBRISBANEPERTHSYDNEYADELAIDE

CANBERRA

Highest total summer
rainfall on record for Perth

Climate change
made the extreme
heat of the New
South Wales summer
at least 50 times
more likely to occur

Sydney's hottest
summer on record

Adelaide’s hottest Christmas
day in 70 years at 41.3°C

Canberra experienced its
hottest summer on record
for daytime temperatures

LEGEND
Temperature
RecordHeavy Rainfall
RecordBushfire
Fact

ClimateFact

Temperature
Fact

Figure 3: Some of the records broken in Australia during the Angry Summer of 2016/17. Sources: ABC 2016, BBC 2017, BoM
2017a,f,h,n,p,s,u,x,y, King et al. 2017.

3

ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHER

1.1

Capital Cities
ADELAIDE

CANBERRA›› Adelaide1 had its hottest Christmas day in
70 years with a maximum temperature of
41.3°C (ABC 2016; BoM 2017a).

›› Canberra3 experienced its hottest summer
on record for daytime temperatures,and the equal-hottest mean summer
temperatures on record with the summerof 2005/06 (BoM 2017h).

›› Adelaide2 had its third wettest summer
on record, while six sites in the Adelaide
area observed their highest summer total
rainfall on record (BoM 2017b).

BRISBANE›› Brisbane had its hottest summer onrecord in terms of mean temperature at
26.8°C, equivalent to 1.7°C above average(BoM 2017f).
›› The hottest January night on record wasobserved in Brisbane with a temperatureof 28.0°C on the 21st (BoM 2017e).
›› A record run of 30 consecutive days above
30°C between 28 January and 26 February
beat the previous record from 2002 of 19days (BoM 2017f).

›› In January Canberra recorded
temperatures of at least 30°C on 23 days,
while reaching 35°C on 12 days, thehighest number on record for both cases(BoM 2017g).

MELBOURNE›› Both Moorabbin and Laverton (outersuburbs in Melbourne) experienced theirhottest January night on record on the 8th(BoM 2017k).
›› Essendon Airport, Latrobe University
and Coldstream recorded their highest
December daily minimum temperatureslate in the month (BoM 2017j).

CHAPTER 01
TEMPERATURE RECORDS TUMBLE, YET AGAIN: SUMMER OF 2016/17

PERTH›› Perth4 had its second hottest December
day on record at 42.4°C on the 21st (BoM
2017o).
›› The second highest daily rainfall totalof 114.4 mm occurred on February 10 in
Perth (BoM 2017t), while 192.8 mm total
rainfall occurred over summer, which is
the highest rainfall total on record (BoM
2017p).

SYDNEY›› Summer in 2016/17 was the hottest
on record for Sydney5 with a mean
temperature 2.8°C above average (BOM
2017x).
›› Sydney recorded its hottest Decembernight since 1868 at 27.1°C (BoM 2017l).
›› All Sydney stations observed their highest
January mean temperature on record(BoM 2017w).

1 Adelaide rainfall observations from North Adelaide site
2 Adelaide temperature observations from Kent Town site
3 Canberra observations from Canberra Airport site
4 Perth observations from Perth Metro site
5 Sydney observations from Observatory Hill site.

›› A record-breaking 26 days of 30°C or
higher and 11 days of 35°C or higher wereexperienced (BOM 2017x).
›› Sydney experienced a record numberof January nights with minimum
temperatures above 20°C, with 25 days,
beating the previous 2013 record (BoM
2017m).
›› Three sites in the Sydney region observed
their record highest summer temperature
on February 11: Richmond (47°C), Badgerys
Creek (46.4°C) and Penrith Lakes (46.9°C)(BOM 2017x).

4

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ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHER

1.2

Regional Australia
QUEENSLAND›› The summer of 2016/17 was the second
hottest on record (BoM 2017s).
›› The State experienced heatwave
conditions several times during thesummer, with day and night temperatures
much warmer than normal (BoM 2017s).
›› The peak of the heat occurred on 11 and 12
February, when eight locations had theirhighest summer temperature on record
including Weipa (38.8°C), Dalby (43.0°C),
Warwick (42.2°C), Applethorpe (39.7°C)
and the University of Queensland - Gatton(45.7°C) (BoM 2017s).
›› Maryborough recorded its highest everJanuary temperature of 39.6°C on the 21st
(BoM 2017r) and had a record 23 summerdays of 35°C or warmer (BoM 2017s).
›› Gold Coast Seaway and Yeppoon coastal
stations experienced record overnight
minimum temperatures of 24.9°C and
26.7°C, respectively, on New Years Eve(BoM 2017q).
›› 18 sites across Queensland had theirlowest summer total rainfall on record(BoM 2017s).

NEW SOUTH WALES›› The state-wide mean temperature insummer was the hottest for New South
Wales since records began in 1910 (BoM
2017n).

›› Summer temperatures were the hottest on
record across almost 45% of New South
Wales (BoM 2017n).
›› The extreme summer heat in New South
Wales was at least 50 times more likely tooccur due to climate change (King et al.
2017).
›› Record maximum temperatures fromFebruary 2017 now contribute 8 of the 10of the highest February temperatures for
New South Wales (BoM 2017u).
›› Heatwaves brought extreme heat to thestate. The severe heat experienced on
February 11 saw the state-wide average
maximum temperature reach 44.0°C,
the hottest February day on record (BoM
2017n).
›› 55 locations across the state had theirhighest summer temperature on record,
while 29 locations had their highest
summer minimum temperature on record(BoM 2017n).
›› 33 locations in New South Wales had arecord number of days of 40°C or above(BoM 2017n).
›› Moree, a large town in northern New
South Wales, reached 35°C or above for 54
consecutive days between 27 Decemberand 18 February, a record for the state (BoM
2017u).
›› Mungindi, on the New South Wales/
Queensland border, had 49 consecutive
nights of 20°C or above, smashing theprevious record of 27 nights (BoM 2017u).

CHAPTER 02
IMPACTS OF EXTREME HEAT

2. Impacts ofExtreme Heat
Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas)
is worsening the impacts of extreme
heat-related events in Australia, by

2.1

affecting our health, energy systems,
ecosystems and is increasing
dangerous bushfire weather.

HealthMajor heatwaves are a silent killer andhave caused an estimated 2,900 deathsin Australia in the 1890-2013 period,
which is more deaths than bushfires,
tropical cyclones, earthquakes, floods
and severe storms combined (DIT 2013).
Extreme heat events – hot days, hot nights,
and prolonged heatwaves – result in an
increased use of health services (Kjellstrom
and McMichael 2013). This summer,
paramedics have responded to numerous
heat-related incidents, particularly across
Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales(e.g. ABC 2017d; News Limited 2017a; NSW
Government 2017). Children, the elderly,
people with existing health issues, andworkers with heat-exposed jobs (e.g. farmers
and construction workers) are typically themost vulnerable to extreme heat (Figure 4).
Heatwaves in Australia during the 2013/14
Angry Summer cost approximately $8 billion
through absenteeism and a reduction inwork productivity (Zander et al. 2015). Zander
et al. (2015) found that 70% of about 1,700
survey respondents were less productive
because of heat stress. Additional impactsof hot weather include higher work accident
frequency because of concentration lapses,and poor decision-making ability due totime perception change and higher levels of
fatigue (Morabito et al. 2006; Tawatsupa etal. 2013; Tamm et al. 2014). The potential for
extreme heat events to affect people’s healthand well-being indirectly was highlighted
by the failure of the South Australia energy
system to cope with demand during the earlyFebruary heatwave, which led to power cuts
to 40,000 homes (Section 2.2).

Figure 4: Children are amongst those who are mostvulnerable to extreme heat – other groups include
the elderly, people with existing health issues, andworkers with heat-exposed jobs (e.g. farmers andconstruction workers).

6

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ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHER

2.2 Energy Systems
A severe heatwave in early February acrossmuch of Australia’s south, east and interiorcaused issues for the South Australian and
New South Wales energy systems. In South
Australia, 40,000 people were left without
power for about half an hour in the early
evening while temperatures were over 40°C.
The highest temperature in South Australia
recorded on February 8 was at Moomba
where the daytime maximum reached46.6°C at Moomba Airport, while Adelaide
reached a high of 42.4°C (BoM 2017c,i). This
extreme summer heat placed the energy
system under great pressure (despite energy
supply being available). This is the second
time in six months that South Australia’s
energy system failed to deliver continuous
power to the state due to extreme weather
events. A major storm in September 2016battered the state, downing 23 transmission
towers cutting power to over 900,000
households.

Several days later on February 10, New South
Wales experienced the same heatwave
with temperatures at Sydney Airport
reaching 42.9°C, its hottest February
temperature on record (BoM 2017v). With
near record all-time peak electricity
demand, the state narrowly avoided
widespread blackouts. Imports of electricity
via three interconnections with Victoria
and Queensland ran above design limits,
contributing 12% to meeting peak demand(AEMO 2017). Around 3000MW of fossil
fuel plant was not available – tripping off(400MW), unable to start (760MW), out for
maintenance (1000MW) or output limited
due to cooling water limits (600MW). At one
stage, the Tomago aluminium smelter shed
580 MW of load. It was this, and careful use
by consumers, saving 200MW, that allowed
New South Wales to avoid widespread
blackouts. This heatwave highlights thevulnerability of our energy systems toextreme weather. Climate change will makeheatwaves longer, hotter and more frequent,increasing stresses on Australia’s ageing
energy infrastructure.

Figure 5: Power pylons in southeast Australia – climate change is worsening extreme weather including heatwaves
and is increasing the vulnerability of energy systems to blackouts.

CHAPTER 02
IMPACTS OF EXTREME HEAT

2.3 Ecosystems
Ecosystems suffer severe impacts fromheat-related extreme weather. The Great
Barrier Reef experienced its worst everbleaching event in 2016 (Figure 6) resulting
in the mortality of two-thirds of the coral in
the pristine, northern sector. Warmer than
average sea surface temperatures off the
Queensland east coast again this summer istriggering another bleaching event, which
will have further consequences for the reef’s
health and the livelihoods of people who rely
on tourism. The Great Barrier Reef employsaround 70,000 people (Deloitte AccessEconomics 2013) and contributes around$7 billion to the national economy annually(Jacobs 2016), so the loss in tourism as a resultof coral bleaching could be dire for the region.

The severe summer heat has also affected
terrestrial wildlife such as flying foxes,
which are particularly susceptible to extreme
heat events. Exposure to air temperatures
over 40°C can lead to heat stress and deathfrom dehydration, especially when very hot
conditions are accompanied by dry weather(Climate Council 2017a). The February
heatwave caused thousands of flying fox
deaths across southeast Australia. The worst
affected areas were in northern New South
Wales, where more than 2,000 flying foxes
died (ABC 2017b).

Figure 6: Bleached coral on the Great Barrier Reef 50 km offshore from Port Douglas, in the northern pristine sector of thereef, after the worst ever bleaching event in 2016.

8

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ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHER

2.4 Bushfires
Hot weather, combined with very dry
conditions in New South Wales and theAustralian Capital Territory, led to tinderbox
fire conditions in January and February.
During the February heatwave, nearly 100
bushfires were raging simultaneously in
New South Wales (BBC 2017; Figure 7), anddestroyed at least 30 homes (ABC 2017c).
Meanwhile in Victoria, 40 fires were burningin mid-January with temperatures acrossmuch of Victoria exceeding 40°C (NewsLimited 2017), and at the same time in South
Australia a major fire threatened a Waterloo
wind farm north of Adelaide (ABC 2017a).
Dangerous bushfire weather is becoming
more common in the south and east ofAustralia (CSIRO and BoM 2016), and climatechange is projected to lead to harsher fire
weather in the southeast of Australia over the
coming decades (CSIRO and BoM 2015).

Figure 7: Helicopter using water buckets to fight bushfires in rural New South Wales during the February 2017 heatwave.
Nearly 100 fires were burning simultaneously across the state.

CHAPTER 03
THIS IS THE CRITICAL DECADE TO REDUCE EMISSIONS

3. This is the Critical
Decade to Reduce
Emissions
We are into the latter half of thecritical decade, and temperatures arecontinuing to increase and extreme
weather events are worsening.
Climate change is increasing thefrequency, duration and intensity ofheatwaves and warm spells (Perkins
et al. 2012). Hot days and heatwaves,
like those experienced in the 2016/17
Angry Summer, are becoming
the new normal, and even more
extreme heat is on the way in future
unless rapid and deep reductions
in greenhouse gas emissions areachieved around the world.
Australia will continue to warm substantiallyduring the 21 st century (CSIRO and BoM
2015) and the impacts will also become
more severe. CSIRO and BoM (2015) projectwith very high confidence that mean, daily
minimum and daily maximum temperatures
will continue to increase for all regionsin Australia over the next two decades orso. However, whether or not extreme heatbecomes even worse during the second
half of the century depends on whether
the world, including Australia as one of
the 15 largest emitters, can rapidly anddeeply reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and transition to a carbon-neutral global
economy by mid-century.

A high-end emissions scenario (RCP8.5),
equivalent to ‘business as usual’ greenhousegas emissions, would result in a temperature
increase above present of 2.8-5.1°C by
2090. This would likely make large areas ofAustralia, especially those in the interior,uninhabitable. Even if the temperature rise
was only 2°C from pre-industrial levels, a
current 1 in 50 year extreme heat event in
New South Wales would occur every 5 years(King et al. 2017). However, if greenhouse gas
emissions are cut very rapidly and deeply, as
required for a global temperature rise of 1.5°C
above pre-industrial (RCP 2.6), Australiantemperatures are projected to increase by
only 0.6-1.7°C by 2090. Regardless of theultimate level of temperature rise, major
Australian cities will be affected significantly
over the next two decades at least, with
Brisbane, Canberra and Darwin set for thebiggest proportional increases in the numberof days with maximum temperatures 35°C
and above (Table 1). In this year’s Angry
Summer, Canberra recorded temperaturesof at least 35°C on 18 days, already far higher
than the 12 days projected for 2030 (Table 1).

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ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHER

Table 1: Average number of days per year with the maximum temperature above 35°C for Australian capital cities. 2030 and
2090 figures are from median CMIP5 projected warming of maximum temperatures under different RCP (representative
concentration pathway) scenarios; the 1995 figures are averages of observations for the 1981-2010 period.

Capital Cities

1995

2030

2090

RCP4.5

RCP2.6

RCP8.5

Adelaide

20

26

32

47

Brisbane

12

18

27

55

Canberra

7.1

12

13

29

Darwin

11

43

52

265

Hobart

1.6

2.0

2.0

4.2

Melbourne

11

13

14

24

Perth

28

36

37

63

Sydney

3.1

4.3

4.5

11

Source: CSIRO and BoM 2015.

Australia joined the rest of the world in Parisat the 21st United Nations Conference of theParties (COP21) meeting in December 2015
to increase the level of commitment to limit
climate change. While carbon emissions flatlined in China last year and declined in the
United States (Le Quéré et al. 2016), Australia’s
emissions rose by 0.8% (Commonwealth ofAustralia 2016a). This rise puts into serious
doubt whether even Australia’s very weakemissions reductions target of 26-28% by2030 can be achieved.
With Australia’s emissions continuing torise, it is clear that the Federal Government’s
current climate policy is failing. Australia
needs to transition rapidly to cheap, clean,renewable energy to reduce our emissions as
opposed to “clean coal” plants. “Clean coal”
plants emit significant greenhouse gases. For

example, a new high-efficiency coal plantrun on black coal would produce about 80%of the emissions of an equivalent old plant(Commonwealth of Australia 2016b), while
renewables (e.g. wind and solar) have zero
emissions. Further, it makes no economic
sense to build new coal plants. New wind andsolar plants both in Australia and overseas
are more cost competitive than new coal
(Jotzo 2017).
The Angry Summer of 2016/2017 is indicativeof a super-charged extreme weather fuelled
primarily by the burning of coal, oil and gas.
We are at a critical juncture. The only viableoption to protect Australians is to join the
global effort in transitioning to renewables,
improving energy efficiency and ramping up
other zero-emission climate solutions.

CHAPTER 03
THIS IS THE CRITICAL DECADE TO REDUCE EMISSIONS

Australia needs to contribute to
the accelerating global transition
to cheap, clean, renewable energy
needed to stabilise the climate andprotect Australia from worsening
extreme weather.

Figure 8: Large-scale solar farm at Broken Hill, regional New South Wales. Uptake of renewable energy such as solar and wind
is affordable and imperative for achieving reductions in emissions.

12

13

ANGRY SUMMER 2016/17:
CLIMATE CHANGE SUPER-CHARGING EXTREME WEATHER

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IMAGE CREDITSImage Credits
Page 1: Figure 2 “The power of morning” by Flickr user Jona
Nalder licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Page 6: Figure 4 “Summer Heat” by Flickr user Mats Hagwall
licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Page 7: Figure 5 “The power” by Flickr user Indigo Skies
Photography licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Page 8: Figure 6 “CC_Reef_UW_5” by Climate Council(photo: Kirsten Tidswell).
Page 9: Figure 7 “IMG_7590” by Flickr user cssk licensed
under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Page 12: Figure 8 “Solar panels Broken Hill” by Flickr user
Jeremy Buckingham licensed under CC BY 2.0.

16

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