“Disgraceful and delusional:” Capital cities warned of 50°C temps as Joyce seeks support for net zero repeal

Capital cities across Australia could face scorching temperatures exceeding 50°C, and a surge in extreme fire days, unless more action is taken to address climate change, the Climate Council has warned.

The independent climate science organisation released a report on Wednesday that urges Australia to aim for net zero by 2035 – rather than the current target of 2050 – to help accelerate global efforts on climate change, as scientists warn of increasingly dire impacts on current trajectories.

The Climate Council’s Stronger Target, Safer Future report calls for Australia to cut climate pollution by 75 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 (the current target is 43 per cent), and to reach net zero by 2035.

It comes as Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce seeks support for a bill calling for the abolition of net zero targets, an idea supported by the country’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, many conservative MPs, right wing think tanks and fossil fuel lobby groups.

Another Nationals MP, and former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack has also voiced his support for the Joyce net zero repeal. Both Joyce and McCormack represent electorates in NSW with some of the best wind and solar resources in the country, and some of the biggest projects.

Joyce, who last week called for the word “farm” to be removed from wind and solar projects, because he says it disrespects actual farmers, said on Wednesday he had “never agreed” to a net zero deal.

In 2016, at the unveiling of the White Rock wind farm in his own electorate, Joyce was happy to use the words “wind farm” and touted its emissions and jobs benefits.

“White Rock Wind Farm will put New England on the map as a national leader in renewable energy production and drive local jobs and economic activity through the construction phase,” Joyce said at the time.

“This and other clean energy projects proposed for the region will ensure the New England is a major player in the field and sending power to the New England and beyond. Clean energy is essential to meet our emissions reduction targets.”

The Joyce bill will be voted down – due to Labor’s thumping majority – but the Coalition has vowed to have a “review” of its net zero commitments, and there appears to be a clear divide between the majority of Nationals MPs and the declining number of Liberal “moderates”.

Meanwhile, Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie described the push by Joyce, reportedly supported by another former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack, was “disgraceful, delusional, and totally out of step” with the parliament and the country. 

“It’s a stunt … but it is another disgraceful tactic in a long history of spurious claims and peddling climate denial.”

McKenzie says the new Climate Council report, which comes just weeks after the Climate Change Authority is expected to deliver its recommendations on a 2035 target to the federal government, found that a weak climate risk more damage and disaster.

“We wanted to emphasise that if you’re advocating for weak targets, that is an active commitment to greater global disruption and damage,” McKenzie said.

“Those who advocate for weak targets must articulate clearly their costed plans to support, relocate or protect the Australian community through unprecedented social and economic breakdown.”

The report reveals that Australia has already warmed by an average of 1.51°C since national records began in 1910, and if average global temperatures rise by 3°C, the country would become unrecognisable 50°C temperatures common in cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. The number of extreme fire days could double.

“The combination of rising sea levels and increasingly intense low-pressure systems and cyclones greatly increases the damage from storm surges, inundation and coastal erosion,” the report says.

“Extreme heat, bushfires and severe storms put mounting pressure on urban infrastructure and dwellings, rendering many properties and businesses uninsurable.”

Australia also faces a staggering $4.2 trillion economic hit over the next 50 years if climate continues unchecked, the report found. 

The CCA has said that it is considering a 2035 target of between 65 per cent and 75 per cent, although all environmental groups insist that a 75 per cent cut should be the bare minimum, particularly given the failure of Australia – and the rest of the world – to achieve much in the decade since the Paris treaty.

The Paris agreement, which Australia and 195 other parties adopted in 2015, aims to limit global temperature rises to 1.5°C, but that required a net zero target globally in the early 2040s.

Recent reports suggest that the carbon “budget” for that target will be exhausted within two or three years, and that strong action now could cap global warming at below 2°C, although the risk of “feedback loops” is growing at those levels.