Climate change is making natural disasters like fires, floods, heatwaves and drought more frequent and more extreme.
The Australia Institute is proposing a National Climate Disaster Fund, funded by a levy of $1 per tonne of all coal gas and oil produced in Australia to help pay for some of the increasing costs of these climate disasters.
A $1 levy per tonne of carbon pollution on fossil fuel production in Australia would currently raise around $1.5 billion a year for the National Climate Disaster Fund.
Natural disasters are estimated to currently cost Australians around $13 billion per year. These costs will rise dramatically as the frequency and intensity of fires, floods, drought and heatwaves increases as a result of climate change, unless emissions are cut.
Polling undertaken for The Australia Institute’s Climate of the Nation 2019 report found that 62% of Australians support the introduction of a fossil fuel levy to pay for the impacts of climate change, with only 21% opposed.
You can read more about The Australia Institute’s proposal for a National Climate Disaster Fund here, and find the full report here
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To the Parliament of Australia --
Climate change is making natural disasters like fires, floods, heatwaves and drought more frequent and more extreme.
These disasters are already costing ordinary Australians billions of dollars every year.
Every tonne of coal and gas mined in Australia ends up as more greenhouse gas being pumped into the atmosphere, fuelling climate change and making these disasters worse.
These costs will keep increasing as climate change gets worse.
We urge you to establish a National Climate Disaster Fund, funded by a levy on each tonne of all coal, gas and oil produced in Australia.
Your companies and its officers have long reaped the profits, now you should do something for the country.