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The local region can expect longer, hotter and more intense droughts for at least another 30 years according to the latest Climate Council report. The report, released on Tuesday and penned by seven leading climate change experts, focussed on the “devastating” impact a 20 year decline in cool season rainfall has had, and will continue to have, on the “Tamworth, Armidale, Moree and Tenterfield regions.” The report also states that devastation and damage is directly linked to the burning of fossil fuels, with acting Climate Council CEO and head researcher Dr Martin Rice stating that the federal government has “abjectly failed to tackle climate change.” “Because of the greenhouse gas pollution we have already emitted we are “locked-in” to see more intense droughts, and bushfires, until at least the middle of the century,” Dr Rice said. “We need to really accelerate the transition to renewables or we will see just how devastating that impact will be – Australia is known as the sunburnt country, but it is going to be scorched.” The Deluge and Drought: Australia’s Water Security in a Changing Climate report, found that the Murray-Darling Basin, which produces more than a third of the country’s food supply, has experienced a 41 per cent reduction in stream flow in the last 20 years. “Farmers have already been feeling the brunt of this for a long time, which is why it is really important to have them on board,” Dr Rice said. One farmer that is on board is Quirindi’s Jim McDonald, who agreed to host the release of the report on his property Red Braes on Tuesday alongside Climate Councillor Professor Will Steffen. “When we hear that even less water will circulate through our catchments and into the Murray-Darling Basin, it sends shivers up our spines,” Mr McDonald said. “Farmers like myself are experiencing the impacts of climate change first-hand - higher average and maximum summer temperatures, extended frost periods and greater rainfall variability significantly impacting our crop yields.” For Professor Steffen time is of the greatest importance, as well as a sense of global responsibility. “Australia is the 15th biggest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the world and our emissions continue to rise,” he said. “We must start pulling our weight now by accelerating the transition to renewable energy. We have a vested interest to do our fair share in meeting the climate change challenge – the second half of the century could get much worse unless we rapidly reduce global emissions.”

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