Australia

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| Press release

Pacific: Urgent call for collective action to reduce the impact of climate change and disasters

Suva, 23 February 2023 – The escalating impact from climate hazards will destroy decades of development progress in the Pacific if there is not a major shift from disaster response to anticipatory action, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) concluded during this week’s Red Cross Pacific Leaders Meeting in Suva, Fiji. Pacific island states make up the majority of countries that suffer the highest relative losses – between 1 percent and 9 percent of their GDP – from the impact of natural hazards. Katie Greenwood, IFRC’s Pacific Head of Delegation, said: “We have a lot of humanitarian challenges in the Pacific which we need to address together as a region and not only as the Red Cross in each country. Climate change and disasters are all constantly affecting our region in some shape or form. We need to ensure resources, financing, and knowledge to address the challenges of climate change are available to be able to better anticipate how we can prepare and respond. To effectively manage the risks of disasters, we need to focus on investing in disaster response as well as resilience building actions ahead of disasters which also supports risk-informed development. As a result, we can minimise the human and economic losses that can set back a country’s development progress." Climate change is exacerbating underlying vulnerabilities which will continue to degrade livelihoods and resilience as the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods are set to increase in the coming decades. Further compounded with longer term, severe events such as droughts, sea level rise, king tides and saltwater intrusion, the Red Cross must lead, with their communities across the Pacific, on anticipation and preparedness for the changing nature of disaster impact. “More must be done in terms of anticipatory action, adaptation, and preparedness, to save lives and livelihoods.” The Red Cross in the Pacific are Australian Red Cross, Cook Islands Red Cross, Fiji Red Cross, Kiribati Red Cross, Marshall Islands Red Cross, Micronesia Red Cross, New Zealand Red Cross, Palau Red Cross, Papua New Guinea Red Cross, Samoa Red Cross, Solomon Islands Red Cross, Tonga Red Cross, Tuvalu Red Cross and Vanuatu Red Cross. For more information or to arrange an interview, contact: In Suva: Soneel Ram, +679 9983 688, [email protected]

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| Article

Study: Climate change increased chance of "extreme fire weather" by 30%

Climate change increased the chance of the “extreme fire weather” witnessed in Australia over the past few months by at least 30 per cent, says a new analysis by World Weather Attribution scientists. The true figure could be “much higher” because models underestimate the trend in heat extremes – one of the main factors making up indicators of fire danger. If global temperatures were to rise by 2°C, the study adds, the fire-weather conditions experienced in summer 2019–20 “would be at least four times more common as a result of human-caused climate change,” a WWA press release says. The researchers, from Australian, European and American universities and research institutes = including the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre - used an international Fire Weather Index first developed by Canada and France and adapted for use in Australia and other countries. They compared present-day conditions, with more than 1°C of global warming, to the climate as it was around 1900, focusing on heat and periods of very low rainfall. Heatwaves like Australia’s this summer “are now hotter by 1–2°C than they were around 1900”, the WWA release says; the scientists did not, however, “directly link the recent record low annual rainfall nor the driest month of the fire season with climate change.” The Australian Red Cross, which to date has raised the equivalent of nearly US$ 30m for its humanitarian response to the fires, has described the episode as “extraordinary times with extraordinary responses”. Climate Centre Director Professor Maarten van Aalst, a joint author of the WWA study, said today: “Climate change is already making our global humanitarian work more difficult; we’re facing bigger risks and more surprises. “This study shows that these rising risks are reflected in the huge losses inthe Australian bushfires that it will take even a wealthy, well-prepared nation a long time to recover from. “Adaptation and resilience are criticalbut on their own are not enough: reducing emissions is also crucial.” The WWA scientists, who say the chief aim of their methodology is to provide findings relatively quickly after an extreme event, have are submittingtheir results to the scientific journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, where it will be available for open peer-review. Story: Alex Wynter, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

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