Climate disparities
"The links that the natives developed with climate variability, enabled slow evolution and adaptation. Incontrast, European settlers brought with them their cultures, lifestyles, technologies and beliefs developed in various places, so that settlers' acceptance of the frequency of climatic extremes has always been a turbulent journey, which continues to this day." These words from environmental historian Rebecca Jones sum up the hostility of the Australian territory. Apart from Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent in the world. There are ten deserts, covering around 18% of the landmass, and 70% of the country receives less than 500 mm of rainfall each year! These arid zones are sparsely inhabited, with just 3% of the population.
Because of its vastness, Australia has several climatic zones. In the north of Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the tropical climate is characterized by two main seasons: the dry season and the rainy season. From December to March, the monsoon season is particularly wet, with the possibility of tropical cyclones. In October and November, it's the build-up season, when humidity rises steadily but no rain falls. This humid heat makes people irritable and a bit crazy, and fortunately it's also mango season! This has earned the build-up the nickname of mango madness. The north-eastern tip of the country in Queensland and a few islands north of the Northern Territory have an equatorial climate. Much of the coastal regions of Queensland and Western Australia have a subtropical climate. Temperatures here are much less extreme than in tropical climates, and the weather is pleasant all year round. Brisbane is a perfect example. The desert climate, extended by a semi-arid zone, covers more than half of Australia. Summers are very hot, but winters can be cool: temperatures can drop to -4°C during the winter months. But don't worry, blue skies and sunshine bring the temperature back up during the day, and you can often switch from beanie to T-shirt between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. The Mediterranean climate, with four seasons, hot summers and cool winters, is found in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and southern Western Australia. The temperate oceanic climate is found in the extreme south-east of Australia, particularly Tasmania. Precipitation in all seasons is due to the maritime polar air and moderate temperatures.
Climate disasters
The expression "Sunburnt Country ", taken from the famous poem by Australian poet Dorothea MacKellar(My country, 1908), perfectly describes the continent's extreme climatic conditions. The violence of cyclones, floods, mega-fires and heatwaves is a constant reminder of the consequences of global warming. The mainland remains an island, and suffers the full force of increasingly unpredictable weather. Droughts are inevitably exacerbated by climate change, and new heat records are set every year by the Bureau of Meteorology. The hinterland suffers from severe drought, and farmers, who receive very little in the way of state subsidies, are forced to find solutions, often changing the type of crop they grow, and sometimes even relocating their farms to more fertile areas. From the end of the 1990s to around 2007, farmers experienced almost ten years without rain: this was the Millennium Drought. The beginning of 2006 was marked by the huge fires that ravaged southern Australia and Tasmania: the Black Saturday Bushfires and their 400 bushfires destroyed 20,000 square kilometers of land in Victoria in February 2009. No fewer than 173 people died and 2,000 homes were destroyed. This episode left a deep impression on Australia, with the violence of the forest fires that continue to devastate Victoria. Plagued by increasingly recurrent periods of drought, Australia was particularly ravaged by flames between September 2019 and February 2020: forest fires, carried by flames that can grow at up to 60 km/h, burned almost 10 million hectares. These large-scale fires, dubbed mega-fires, are the most devastating Australia has ever seen. They are caused by a combination of factors: drought, extreme temperatures and strong winds. People are now better prepared, and far fewer lives were lost than during Black Saturday. Nevertheless, between 500 million and one billion animals died, including 30% of the koalas in the south-east of the country, according to some estimates. With worldwide media coverage, this tragic episode devastated Australia for months and traumatized many minds.
In addition to forest fires, storms and floods are also common in Australia, and increasingly so due to climate change. Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia are the hardest-hit states, although Victoria and the Northern Territory have also suffered heavy flooding recently. Year after year, Australia continues to pay the heavy price of global warming: in 2022, and again in 2023, historic floods caused by rainbombs hit the states of Queensland and New South Wales. The worst-affected areas recorded up to 400 millimetres of water in the space of twenty-four hours, causing some rivers to flood.
Australia and the climate challenge
While civil society protests against the announced disappearance of the Great Barrier Reef, the destruction of tropical forests and the threat to biodiversity conservation, the government seems deaf to concerns. Although in 2007 Australia ratified the Kyoto Protocol and committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, more and more Australians are criticizing the government for ignoring climate change. Following the mega-fires of 2019 and 2020, several NGOs have tried to alert the population to the consequences of the fires, with doctors even noting an increase in pathologies linked to smoke-induced air pollution. Although bushfires have always occurred and can take on considerable proportions, they are always monitored and controlled. As early as 2005, Australia began to take an interest in the forecasting model; everything that was predicted happened, but it just kept getting worse and faster. To contain the fire, backfires - known as cold fires - were set up to keep the situation under control. The Australians are beginning to call on the traditional knowledge of the Aborigines in this field to reduce the scale of the forest fires. Slash-and-burn, or deliberate forest fires that are regularly repeated according to local environmental conditions, have been used by the Aborigines for thousands of years, and continue to be used in the north of the country.
As the world's fourth-largest coal producer, Australia has a large number of coal mines, which create jobs but also contribute to the problem of climate change. In Australia, there are no roadworthiness tests for cars, no stickers indicating pollution levels, and no incentives for converting the most polluting vehicles. Hybrid cars are starting to become more common, but you'll soon notice that the number of electric cars is minimal compared with European figures. A huge gap to make up. Air travel is also much more standardized than in Europe. It's true that the distances involved are extraordinary. Carbon emissions are therefore a public health hazard for Australians, but in 2014 the Australian Parliament, urged on by the mining sector, abolished the carbon tax introduced by Labor two years earlier.
Threatened by, among other things, invasive species, global warming and industrial activity, the Great Barrier Reef has lost some of its shimmering colors and, in places, fish have deserted its waters altogether. Since the early 2000s, the coral reef has experienced several severe episodes of coral bleaching, including two in a row in 2016 and 2017, affecting more than two-thirds of the tree colonies with their calcareous skeletons.
On the other hand, Australia, the world's second-largest exporter of uranium, has no nuclear power plants and produces extremely polluting thermal energy from its gigantic coal mines. Coal fuels a debate between mining and environmental lobbies, while the country's electricity comes mainly from coal-fired power stations: Australia is thus one of the countries with the highest per capitaCO2 emissions in the world.
In terms of renewable energy resources, Australia has limited hydroelectric potential due to its generally low relief. Wind and solar power now account for 10% and 12% of the country's energy production respectively. Almost a third of homes have solar panels. But production remains minimal compared with the use of coal, and the potential for generation in this sun-drenched country. Numerous giga-solar farm projects are also in the pipeline.
Finally, another detail that could help in the fight against global warming: unlike cows and sheep, kangaroos do not emit methane. Research is underway to transplant the bacteria present in kangaroos' stomachs to cattle, a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane from cattle accounts for 14% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions - the continent's second biggest cause of pollution!
Targets in the face of the climate emergency
After neglecting its goals in the past, Australia appears to be turning its back on long years of climate skepticism. Already in 2019, the hard-fought battle against the proposed open-pit mine in the Gloucester Valley was an unprecedented environmental victory: environmentalists won the legal battle to prevent the mine from opening and extracting shale gas. For the first time in Australia's history, Justice Preston justified his decision on the basis of environmental risk due to climate change. Then, more globally, in response to the Kyoto Protocol, Australia aims to implement clean and advanced technologies without legal constraints on the reduction ofCO2 emissions.
The election of Anthony Albanese therefore represents a new hope for Australia: the progressive Prime Minister wants to prioritize environmental issues. Since the 2022 election, the country has set more ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emissions. The new government, elected on a platform of reducing emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and becoming carbon neutral by 2050, is proposing a more progressive policy than the Liberal Party. His program is designed to limit global warming to 2°C, while the international ambition is to limit it to 1.5°C. All eyes are now on Anthony Albanese: determined to dispel the image of his country as a bad pupil in climate negotiations, the new Australian government is already a candidate to organize the UN COP climate summit in 2026.
