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Climate change

Clean Energy Council Member A natural blanket of gases in the atmosphere traps heat and keeps the Earth's temperature stable. The 'enhanced' greenhouse effect refers to the additional, unnatural (global) warming caused by extra quantities of 'greenhouse gases', including carbon dioxide and methane, generated by human activities. Principal sources of emissions include energy usage, transport, waste and land clearing.

SoE - rural business: nursery The broader scientific community now accepts that increasing levels of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere have the potential to induce adverse long-term changes to the environment. Global warming may have such a large effect on rainfall, drought, and rising sea levels that will cause widespread economic, social and environmental changes. Council is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the environmental sustainability of the community. Find out what council is doing.

SoE - Energy Performance Contract, Council's Administration Building The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a consortium of several thousand independent scientists, has warned all nations that, in order to avoid dangerous climate changes, global warming must be kept less than 2oC, (we have already reached 0.6oC above pre-industrial levels). To do this, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 must stay below 450-550ppm, but because greenhouse gases linger in the atmosphere for at least 100 years, this requires drastic cuts in annual global emissions of at least 60% by 2050 and possibly 80% by 2100. The global warming trend is clearly reflected in Australia, whereby 2005 was the warmest year on record for Australia. The annual mean temperature was 1.09oC above the 1961-1990 average, and the average daily maximum temperature was 1.21oC above average, making for exceptionally warm daytime conditions.

Last modified: 08/09/2008