Politics With Michelle Grattan: Tony Wood On 'Politics Trumping Climate Policy' And The Hard Road Ahead

The Albanese government this week released Australia's first comprehensive National Climate Risk Assessment .

This report details a shocking picture of the impact of climate change from now out to the 2090s, revealing heat-related deaths would soar, flooding would increase dramatically and rising sea levels would devastate some coastal areas. However, the report has had a mixed reception, with some of the assessment's economic forecasts criticised as overly negative .

The government is also about to announce its 2035 target for emissions reduction, with various stakeholders arguing strongly for different levels of ambition.

The Grattan Institute's senior fellow for energy and climate change, Tony Wood, joined us on the podcast to discuss that climate report and the 2035 emissions target, as well as internal Opposition arguments over its commitment to cutting emissions to net zero by 2050.

Wood said rather than taking the new assessment as a precise forecast of what Australia will be like in coming decades, it's more useful to see it as“a warning of what could happen”.

Read more: New climate report warns property prices face a $611 billion hit. What does that mean?

Ahead of the government announcing its 2035 emissions target, Wood said Australia is currently only on track to cut emissions by around 50% below 2005 levels by then –“so we're going to have to step up the pace” in this next decade.

Wood said partisan“climate wars” over the past two decades have slowed down Australia's progress on climate change:

But he said that's a global challenge, as some countries like the United States pull away from renewable energy and other climate projects, while others, including China, do more.

Read more: Climate change is causing ever more disruption. Can Australia's new adaptation plan help?

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