16 November 2009

Up to $63 billion in residential buildings at risk

What a bizarre weekend in news!  All weekend the news media covered the new report revealing the threat of climate change and sea level rise to Australia's coastal communities, yet this morning we hear that governments are no longer planning to reach a binding resolution at Copenhagen next month.

With a potential threat of $63 billion in residential housing alone, let alone the cost of losing low lying infrastructure like Sydney's international airport, surely there is impetus for Australia to drive a binding agreement and start taking real action to reduce the effects of climate change.

The Department of Climate Change's report Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coast suggests that 1-in-100 year weather events could happen several times a year - yet these are the events that are currently used as a benchmark for assessing extreme risk in current planning guidelines.

However this morning's news suggests that there are plans to further slow the progress of international agreements, with Prime Minister Rudd and the Mexican Prime Minister drafting a 15-page, non-binding document, to replace the existing draft agreement which is not expected to be adopted at the conference.

What a pity that there is no Plan B for the environment.