It turns out the Australian economy is absolutely fucked if we don’t sort out climate change in the next 50 years, which is *about* as concerning as it sounds.
Gone are the days of acting like we have to prioritise the economy over the environment because it actually turns out Australia could lose a whopping $3 trillion if we don’t sort out climate change, according to a new Deloitte Access Economics report. Yes, that’s TRILLION, with a ‘T’.
Annually, the Australian economic growth would see a reduction of 3.6% and cost 310,000 jobs per year if we continue to leave climate change unchecked until 2050.
“By 2050, Australia will experience economic losses on par with COVID every single year if we don’t address climate change. That would compromise the economic future of all future generations of Australians,” report author Pradeep Philip, former policy director for Kevin ’07, said.
Thankfully, the report also showed that we still have the power to fix things and see some growth if we start taking climate change seriously.
Basically, if we can keep global warming below 1.5 degrees and Australia can hit that net zero carbon emissions goal (that we’re absolutely NOT on target to meet currently) by 2050, things – economically speaking – could be really good for us.
“If we do act over the next few years then in just 50 years there is a benefit to the economy of $680 billion,” Philip said.
“We’ll have an economy 2.6 per cent bigger, generating 250,000 jobs, so this tells us if you are pro-growth and pro-jobs then we need to act on climate change now.”
However, if we keep ignoring the growing threat of climate change that basically promises to destroy life as we know it, our precious economy is also up shit creek without a paddle.
Unlike other reports, Philip has taken into account the actual costs associated with a rising temperature and the jobs that would get a hell of a lot harder if we turned the heat up a few degrees.
Basically, if the planet keeps warming and we continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend it’s just nature doing its thing, some of our biggest industries could collapse.
According to the report, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory will be among the hardest hit, with labour-intensive industries like trade, tourism and mining likely to struggle as the planet gets hotter. If you thought working in the current summer heat was bad, it’s about to get WAY worse.
“If you work outside, in construction, higher average temperatures make it quite unbearable to work, so we get a loss of productivity, we get adverse health effects, and this translates across the board into retail, manufacturing, transport and mining,” Philip explains.
According to the report, tourism would be the hardest hit, with a loss of $500 billion, followed closely by mining and manufacturing at $350 and $330 billion respectively. To put it simply, that’s bad.
Interestingly, the places that are set to cop the worst of it if we do nothing, will also be most likely to reap the rewards if we get on board with renewables and actually do our bit to help the fight against climate change.
Queensland, in particular, could stand to see half of the country’s job losses in the next 50 years if we continue on our current trajectory. But it’s not all doom and gloom because they could actually gain 70% more jobs in renewables and other sectors if we, you know, stop pretending climate change doesn’t exist.
The Australian Federal Government has promised to hit net zero emissions sometime during the second half of the century, but is yet to commit to the 2050 deadline.
Many businesses, including those in the Australian Energy Council, have already committed to the hard and fast deadline of net zero by 2050, which will undoubtedly help the national efforts. So, big energy companies that directly profit off fossil fuels have committed, but our own Federal Government won’t.
To put it simply, it’s just not good enough and the Morrison government needs to set a deadline.
