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Zali Steggall MP says the Intergenerational Report is a missed opportunity

“The release of the Intergenerational Report is a wasted opportunity for a step-change in climate action” says Zali Steggall MP

“The long-term focus of the report and emphasis of previous reports on climate change presented the Morrison Government with an opportunity to articulate climate risk in economic terms. While the report does acknowledge some risk posed by a changing climate specifically to the agriculture, resources and finance industries, it stops short of acknowledging and forecasting the impact of the changes to the economy as a whole.

University of Melbourne estimated that by 2050 total cumulative losses of nearly $2.7 trillion from climate change impacts. By contrast, the cost of achieving net zero was estimated at $122 billion.[1] Deloitte Access Economics concluded that failure to take decisive action on Climate Change in Australia will cost the economy $3.4 trillion and 880,000 jobs in the next 50 years. By contrast, adopting a policy of green growth would see an additional $680 billion pumped into the economy and create 250,000 jobs over the same period of time.[2]

The UK commissioned the Stern Review into the cost of climate change to inform their approach to addressing this challenge, the Australian Government won’t even consider it in the Intergenerational Report.

This Intergenerational report only has a cursory mention of climate change in the future spending projections, with climate change only mentioned once in the summary of spending projections in what reads like an afterthought. Australia is flying blind with a Morrison Government in denial of the risks ahead.

I welcome the focus on the opportunities that transition to clean technologies offers to Australia but, without clear policy guidance, these opportunities will be missed by our economy with investors looking elsewhere for greater certainty.

Rather than patting itself on the back for the minimal change that has been achieved in the last 15 years, the Morrison Government needs to focus on the improvements it can make over the next 30.”

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[1] https://sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/news/what-are-the-full-economic-costs-to-australia-from-climate-change

[2] https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-dae-new-choice-climate-growth-051120.pdf?nc=1