What can be done to reduce the risk of big bushfires in the future?
We must do everything in our power to avoid a repeat of the devastating Victorian bushfires. ACF welcomes the Victorian government’s Royal Commission into the fires and hopes it will examine climate change risks, along with planning and urban growth issues. The science is telling us if we don’t act immediately and strongly on climate change we’ll see these climate conditions become more frequent and more intense. Yet, if adopted globally, the Federal Government’s weak 5–15 per cent emissions reduction target would condemn Australia to a disastrous future of catastrophic climate change with more bushfires. Handing on a future of more devastating bushfires, droughts and cyclones to future generations should be absolutely unacceptable. Our Federal Government must strengthen its efforts to tackle climate change and play a leadership role at the crucial UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
