Causes and Impacts of Climate Change in Asia Pacific: Integrated Responses and Need for Change in Decision Making in Australia

Abstract

The causes of climate change are global in scope and the impacts will have long-term and potentially irreversible consequences for generations to come. Continued release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere will cause further warming and broad ranging effects, which will flow effects onto land, ecosystems, and water. The Fifth Assessment Report of the International Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of 2013 is unequivocal: it is beyond doubt that climate change is real and is caused by a wide range of human consumption and production processes. While the link between increasing anthropogenic GHGs and climate change damage is generally recognized, it remains extremely difficult to establish a specific cause. Scientists and climatologists deal with probability, not certainty, and it is difficult to establish a specific causal link between a country and/or industrial emissions and the damage wrought by GHGs. This chapter argues that there is little scope for nations to suggest that the likely impact of increased GHGs was not foreseeable. This chapter critically analyzes recent developments in Asia Pacific region with a focus on Australia’s new national climate plan; the Nation Energy Guarantee (NEG). Australia’s response (the decision-making mix) to climate change will be inextricably tied to its future prosperity. This chapter concludes that advances in climate science, clean-energy technology, and the volume of international climate-related commitments for which governments will be held to account should be the impetus to strengthen Australia’s commitments and to deploy comprehensive policy responses, which genuinely address the causes and impacts of climate change.