As Europe sweltered in the summer heat, Australians took stock of a new report that revealed how much the country's environment has deteriorated in the last five years.
"Our waters are struggling, and so is the land," said Tanya Plibersek, Labor's new Environment Minister, as she released the long-awaited State of the Environment report on Tuesday. Despite being completed in 2021, the previous Coalition government did not release the report.
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"You'll understand why when you read it," said Plibersek, who took the job six weeks ago, following a strong shift toward parties and independent candidates promising tougher climate action in the May election.
The environment in Australia is "poor and deteriorating," according to the report, due to "climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and resource extraction."
The report weaved the devastating effects of the climate crisis throughout, from marine heat waves that have caused mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef to extreme weather events such as bushfires and flooding.
On November 15, 2019, a kangaroo flees the fire as it approaches a property in Colo Heights, Australia.
Despite the devastating effects of global warming on Australia's landscape, Plibersek said the new Labor government would not back down from its pre-election promise to allow new coal mines if they received environmental approval and commercial support.
Neither would the government raise Australia's targets of reducing emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by 2030, or achieving net zero emissions before the stated target of 2050.
"There are some who would say we shouldn't have any mining anywhere," she said, "but that's not a sustainable or reasonable proposition for a modern economy like Australia."
"We made a commitment to zero net emissions with an interim target of 43 percent reduction in carbon pollution, and we intend to keep that commitment."
According to the report, Australia's emissions have most likely peaked. However, climate scientists argue that they are not declining quickly enough to meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to Climate Analytics researchers, Labor's 43 percent target is consistent with global warming of 2 degrees Celsius.
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