Justice Stocktake 2025
Home | Impacts of Climate Change
Climate change
Australia’s climate has warmed since records started to be kept in 1910.[1] This is because of the greenhouse effect, where the level of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere act as a blanket, trapping in heat.[2] The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that this has been caused by human activities.[3]
Changes in our climate have led to:
- More frequent and intense extreme weather events like floods, heatwaves and bushfires
- Changes to rainfall patterns
- Rising sea temperature and levels
- More hot days and less cold days
- Coral bleaching [4]
Climate change impacts go beyond the environmental impacts. Climate change will have strong impacts on physical and mental health, including those resulting from lack of access to clean water and sanitation, changes to spread in diseases, increased natural disasters, and poverty.
We are already experiencing this in Australia with disaster trends being complex, compounding and cascading, and it is expected to get worse.[5] Climate change responses must lower emissions and help our community adapt to a changing climate. Unfortunately, people already experiencing disadvantage are more likely to be impacted negatively both by climate change and by measures to adapt. They typically have fewer resources to reduce the personal impact of climate change (such as installing solar panels or moving to a safer region) and to recover from it (such as rebuilding after a flood or fire). This means that addressing climate change is not just an environmental or economic imperative — it is a social justice priority.
There has been an increase in extreme fire weather, and a longer fire season, across large parts of Australia since the 1950s.[8]
84% directly affected
A Climate Council survey found that 84 per cent of respondents had been directly affected by at least one climate-fuelled disaster since 2019. The same percentage report being worried that their home insurance may become unaffordable due to worsening disasters.[9]
$1532 average cost per Aussie household
It is estimated that the extreme weather events that happened between September 2021 and September 2022 cost every Australian household an average of $1532.[10]
We have the power to make a difference
We can urge action from our governments
As a nation we can commit to deep, rapid and sustained reductions in Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions before 2030, and net zero carbon dioxide emissions by the early 2050s.`
At all levels of government, we can invest in, and create, policies that encourage widespread investment in renewable energy, energy conservation and efficiency, and reducing transport emissions.
In relevant policy, regulatory and planning settings, the risks and impacts of climate change, especially on those already experiencing disadvantage, can be at the forefront of decision-making processes. Given the increasing likelihood and severity of climate-related disasters, it is imperative that governments commit effort and resources to developing resilience and preparedness.
We can implement change in our community and our workplaces
When we are making a business decision about what we sell or purchase and how we manage waste, we can consider the climate change impact of our actions.
Our community groups can support local food growers and producers, reclaim green spaces, or grow the local circular economy.
When we’ve found actions that work, we can share knowledge and resources to help and encourage others in the community reduce our individual and collective footprint.
We can have influence in our personal lives
We can commit to one change to reduce our individual greenhouse gas footprint. This could look like eating more sustainable and healthy meals once a week, reducing our food waste, catching public transport, cycling or walking instead of driving, or changing the energy sources we rely on.
CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. (2022). State of the Climate 2022. [Link] ↩︎
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. (n.d.). Understanding climate change. DCCEEW. [Link] ↩︎
IPCC. (2023). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-34. [Link] ↩︎
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. (n.d.). Understanding climate change. DCCEEW. [Link] CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. (2022). State of the Climate 2022. [Link] ↩︎
IPCC. (2023). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-34. [Link] ↩︎
CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. (2022). State of the Climate 2022. [Link] ↩︎
IPCC. (2023). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-34. [Link] ↩︎
CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. (2022). State of the Climate 2022. [Link] ↩︎
Climate Council. (2024). Survey results: Climate-fuelled disasters cause Australians to fear permanent loss of homes. [Link] ↩︎
Lefebvre, M., & Reinhard, J. (2022). The Cost of Extreme Weather: Building Resilience in the face of disaster. The McKell Institute. [Link] ↩︎