The scientific advice is clear; the world is tracking towards a climate catastrophe. Shamefully, the Australian government is contributing to the risk of a catastrophe with its support for fossil fuels, especially with its plan for a long-term expansion of gas production. This is a major policy failure.

Australia is highly prone to extreme weather events that are being exacerbated by climate change, and should be advocating globally for the strongest possible action to minimise the climate threat. Climate scientists have made it clear that the critical requirement to minimise the threat is to rapidly reduce the burning of fossil fuels, and phase out these fuels as quickly as is responsibly possible. Both Labor and the Coalition, when in power, ignore this requirement. My previous articles (1, 2, 3) provide a package of information and proposals aimed at forcing the Australian government to stop supporting ongoing gas and coal extraction. This article complements those articles by providing additional information and ideas to assist the proposed expert group in developing a campaign strategy.

Unmitigated climate change would be a disaster for Australia. A Deloitte Access Economics report in November 2020 provided extensive information regarding the costs for Australia of unmitigated climate change. The report included the staggering information that by 2070, $3.4 trillion and more than 880,000 jobs would be lost in Australia’s economy from unchecked climate change.

A 2017 DAE report provided information about the Great Barrier Reef. The report stated that the Reef has an economic, social and icon asset value of $56 billion, supports 64,000 jobs and contributes $6.4 billion annually to the Australian........

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