Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to Senator McEwen for the question. She is a senator representing the state of South Australia, which already is feeling the impact of climate change in the lower inflows into the Murray-Darling, particularly into the Murray River. Leaders and policymakers both here and internationally have had plenty of time to get their heads around the science of climate change and why it is we need to act. We have seen a new report this week from a group of eminent scientists reinforcing that climate change is accelerating beyond expectation and that emission reductions are needed urgently.

I realise that many people opposite might claim that this is just another conspiracy. This particular report, The Copenhagen diagnosis, includes 26 researchers, most of whom are authors of published IPCC reports, and it concludes that several critical elements of climate change are occurring at the high end or, regrettably, even beyond the expectations of a few years ago. Key conclusions include: every year this century has been among the top 10 warmest years since instrumental records began, despite solar irradiance being relatively weak over the past few years; global atmospheric temperatures have maintained a strong warming trend since the 1970s, which is consistent with expectations of greenhouse induced warming; key changes in the climate system, such as sea-level rise and the melting of ice sheets, are happening faster than projected by the IPCC fourth assessment report; and measurements that now demonstrate beyond doubt that both the Greenland and Antarctic icesheets are losing mass at an accelerating rate, with widespread evidence of increasing melting of glaciers and icecaps since the mid 1990s. So, while those opposite debate and delay— (Time expired)