State of the Climate Report 2024 - Continuing grim evidence

                                                                     BOM/CSIRO 2024

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology and scientific research organisation, CSIRO, have released their 8th biennial State of the Climate Report. The findings, based on analysis and collation of a range of local and international data sources continues to provide a stark picture of the advance of climate change and its impact on this country.  In releasing the results in this report, the agencies advised that there is only around 7 years left to mitigate and manage greenhouse gas emissions otherwise temperature increases above 1.5C will occur. This warning like so many others, will need to feed into the  United Nations COP 29 conference later this month.  What is abundantly clear from all the reports on climate change across the world is that the timeline for substantial change cannot be 2050. Twenty five years away is too late and the revised target of 2030 is more aligned with the actual climate change data.

A summary of the report findings is listed -

• Australia's climate has warmed by and average of 1.51 +/- 0.23 C since national records commenced in 1900
• Sea surface temperature has increased by an average of 1.08 C since 1900
• The warming has led to an increase in the freqauency of extreme heat events over land and in the oceans
• In the south-west of Australia there has been a decrease of around 16% in April to October rainfall since 1970. Across the same region May to July rainfall has seen the largest reduction by around 20% since 1970
• In the south-east of Australia, there has been a decrease of around 9% in April to October rainfall since 1994
• Heavy short-term rainfall events are becoming more intense
• There has been an increase in extreme fire weather and a longer fire season across large parts of the country since the 1950s
• Snow depth, snow cover and number of snow days have decreased in alpine regions cince the late 1950s
• Oceans around Australia are becoming more acidic with change happening faster in recent decades
• Sea levels are rising around Australia including more frequent extreme high levels that increase the risk of inundation and damage to coastal infrastructure and communities.

The Report can be accessed at this link: State of-the-Climate 2024