The Greens forced the release of the National Climate Risk Assessment report via an order for production of documents (OPD) in the Senate as a necessary input to Labor's upcoming decision on the new 2035 climate target or Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), required by each country under the Paris Agreement.
In light of the chilling revelations in the report, the Greens today reiterate their call on the government to set a science-based climate target of net zero by 2035.
Anything less than net zero emissions by 2035 would lock Australia into exceeding 2 degrees of warming, which as the report outlines, will have dire consequences for civilisation as well as the environment.
The report outlines scenarios such as:
- Significant potential for loss of life and strain on health systems. If global heating rises above 3 degrees, heat-related deaths could surge over 400% in Sydney and Darwin.
- Sea levels rising by half a metre would leave over 3 million people, a third of Australia's coastal population, at a high risk of coastal inundation. Brisbane could flood 300 days a year, and Fremantle 200 days a year.
- A cumulative wealth loss at $4.2 trillion by the end of the century, with over $600 billion wiped from the property market.
In terms of target aspirations, state and territory governments have already made and legislated climate target commitments, and a new federal target lower than 71% would actually take the current sum of commitments backwards.
The National Climate Risk Assessment report should have been released in 2024, meaning the Labor government was aware of the contents at the time of their approval of the North West Shelf gas project through to 2070 in May 2025. The North West Shelf is the Albanese government's most polluting fossil fuel project so far, and will alone contribute the equivalent of 10 years of Australia's total pollution to the atmosphere over its lifetime.
As put by Greens Leader Senator Larissa Waters:
"The revelations about Australia's future under climate change detailed in this report are chilling," Senator Waters said.
"The Greens forced the public release of this report that the government sat on for months, while they ticked off on massive gas projects like the North West Shelf and the Ulan coal mine in their first months of the 48th parliament.
"Coal and gas is delivering Australia a bleak climate future and the polluting profits of the coal and gas industry are a dead weight on Australia's climate target.
"The climate crisis is a risk to our safety, to nature, and to our economy and productivity. This report must be a wake up call for Labor ahead of their 2035 climate target decision.
"Anything less than net zero by 2035 puts Australia on track for more than 2 degrees warming.
"What this report shows is that a 2035 target of 65% means significant potential for loss of life and strain on health systems, more extreme heat, more devastating floods, crop failures, fires, global insecurity and the death of every coral reef around the world.
"If Labor fails to set a science-based climate target then it's crystal clear: they have utterly prioritised coal and gas profits at the expense of community safety and nature."
As put by Greens Deputy Leader and spokesperson for Climate Adaptation, Senator Mehreen Faruqi:
"The Government has been hiding these shocking findings since 2024 and it took the Greens to force its release. " said Faruqi.
"Now that the diabolical truth of what's coming is laid bare, Labor has no choice but to set a strong climate target in line with science and with this dire reality. Anything less is signing Australia and the world up to devastating climate collapse.
"Labor is driving us off a climate cliff and backstabbing climate vulnerable communities in service of coal and gas profits and hoping nobody notices.
"It is unconscionable that Labor had this information when they chose to sign off on the North West Shelf gas project, which alone will release more than 10 years of Australia's pollution over its lifetime.
"This is the moral test for this parliament - Labor could change course and work with the Greens to prevent climate collapse, or be responsible for consequences of the dire revelations in this report."
