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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