2025-09-16
The Prime Minister has not been briefed by the authors of the doomsday Climate Risk Report, and appears to have pre-determined the upcoming 2035 climate target potentially over six months ago and without having considered the dire warnings for Australian society given by scientists, according to explosive revelations in the Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications on Tuesday.
Representatives of the Australian Climate Service (ACS, the agency responsible for the National Climate Risk Analysis) told the Greens-led hearing that they had been unable to brief the Prime Minister on the report’s diabolical contents (clip available here, 9:23-9:26 from the inquiry).
The inquiry also heard from Treasury officials that they have modelled just one figure for a 2035 emissions reduction target, and that work commenced prior to the last election, suggesting Labor pre-determined a climate target without first evaluating the catastrophic risk to Australians, and kept it hidden at the election. (Climate Risk Inquiry Hearing, 11:10-11:11 & 11:17-11:18)
Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Senator Larissa Waters:
“Today we found out the Prime Minister hasn’t even met with the scientists who authored the climate doomsday report.
“1.5 million people are at risk of their homes constantly flooding or falling into the sea in the next 25 years, but the Prime Minister doesn’t want to know about it.
“I’m sure it was easier to approve the North West Shelf gas project with your fingers in your ears, ignoring the real-life terrifying trajectory Australia is on towards climate collapse in the next 25 years.
“The Prime Minister will soon announce Australia’s climate target, but was apparently too busy to talk to the researchers about 1.5 million displaced people, a collapsing health system, crop failures creating food insecurity and the national security implications of the target he’s chosen.
“Treasury officials admitted today that they modelled a single climate target months ago. When they inevitably say they got the balance right, the first question should be how do you know, since Treasury never modelled another scenario.
“Anything less than zero emissions by 2035 locks in the worst scenarios contained in this report.
“Leaders in the business community including Fortescue, Volvo and Unilever have called for a target of at least 75% to incentivise the renewable transition.
“The systemic collapse of climate change will be this Prime Minister’s legacy if he doesn’t set a strong climate target this week and stop approving new coal and gas projects.”