Climate pollution from burning coal, oil and gas is turbocharging Australia’s bushfire risk. Climate change is making hot days hotter, droughts more severe and heatwaves longer and more frequent – and far more dangerous bushfire weather across the country. 

Fire seasons across large parts of Australia are now longer, more volatile and increasingly overlapping. This means there are fewer and shrinking windows in which to prepare for fires, by doing things like hazard reduction burning. Also, fires are harder to control once they take off.

How is climate change influencing bushfires?

A fire needs to be started (ignition), it needs something to burn (fuel), and it needs conditions that are conducive to its spread (i.e dry, windy weather). Climate change, primarily driven by the burning of fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – can affect all of these factors in both straightforward and more complex ways.

Australia, on average, has warmed by 1.51°C ± 0.23 °C since national records began in 1910, with most warming occurring since 1950. Nine of Australia’s top 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005. At the same time, a decline in cool season rainfall in southeast Australia is contributing to an increased likelihood of more dangerous bushfires. Extreme fire weather has increased over the p last 30 years in south and east Australia. The most extreme 10% of fire weather days has increased in recent decades across many regions of Australia, especially in southern and eastern Australia.

Hot days and heatwaves

The most direct link between bushfires and climate change comes from the long-term trend towards a hotter climate. Climate change is now making hot days hotter, and heatwaves longer and more frequent.

In Australia, the annual number of hot days (above 35°C) and very hot days (above 40°C) has also increased strongly over most areas since 1950. Heatwaves are also lasting longer, reaching higher maximum temperatures and occurring more frequently over many regions of Australia.

Extreme heat conditions preceded the Black Saturday bushfire in 2009  – Australia’s most deadly bushfire. In late January, Victoria experienced one of its most severe heatwaves, with Melbourne exceeding 43°C for three consecutive days; the first time on record. The extreme heat dried out flammable vegetation across the state, setting the stage for catastrophic fire conditions. When the Black Saturday fires took off on the 7th of February, temperatures climbed into the mid-40s and Melbourne had its hottest day on record at the time.

Low Rainfall

Declining cool season rainfall has a significant impact on increasing bushfire risk. Since the mid-1990s, southeast Australia has experienced a 15% decline in late autumn and early winter rainfall and a 25% decline in average rainfall in April and May. Climate change is influencing this drying trend.

In the lead-up to January 2003, the ACT endured one of the worst droughts in recorded history. Rainfall was at record lows — just 40mm compared with an average of 150mm. On 18 January Canberra experienced the most destructive bushfires in its history.

From 2017 to 2019 southeast Australia experienced its driest three-year period on record. The Tinderbox Drought was severe and pushed rural towns to the brink of running dry. It set the stage for the bone dry conditions that contributed to the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/2020, which burned more than 24 million hectares of land and led to the deaths of 33 people and almost 450 due to smoke inhalation.

Lengthening seasons

Since the 1970s, there has been an increase in extreme fire weather and a lengthening of the fire season across large parts of Australia, particularly in southern and eastern regions, due to increases in extreme hot days and drying.

The lengthening fire season means that opportunities for fuel reduction burning are decreasing, and it is putting higher demand on our firefighting services. 

Strong winds

Many of Australia’s most destructive bushfires have been fanned by strong winds that have driven explosive fire spread. Strong winds were a factor in the spread of the destructive Cudlee Creek and Gospers Mountain fires during the 2019/20 Black Summer. 

More recent fires on Tasmania’s east coast in late 2025 that claimed 19 homes at Dolphin Sands were also driven by strong gusty winds, and occurred despite recent wet weather. Strong winds can also limit the effectiveness of aerial firefighting. Strong gusty winds can send the water or fire retardant dropped from aircraft far from the fire ground. In some instances winds can be so strong that it is unsafe to fly, limiting firefighting efforts to an on-the-ground response.

More intense fires

Fires are now so intense they create their own wild thunderstorms, hurricane strength winds and lightning. Pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) events occur when bushfires couple with the upper atmosphere, generating explosive thunderstorms that can include strong downdrafts, lightning and even black hail. 

These events are more likely to occur when atmospheric instability is high, combined with dangerous near-surface conditions (e.g. low humidity, strong winds and high temperatures). They happen when large fires generate intense heat and convection columns that reach into the stratosphere, forming cumulonimbus (storm) clouds, but with very little moisture and therefore generating little, if any, rain.

A pyroCb can cause already intense fires to expand and behave explosively, with storm force winds coming from different directions, lightning that causes new fires up to 100km away, and downdrafts that can damage buildings, fire trucks, and push down trees.

From 1979 to 2016 south-eastern Australia has experienced an increase in conditions conducive to the formation of fire-generated thunderstorms. Climate change will continue to amplify these conditions and could lead to more fire-generated extreme weather over longer fire seasons.

Learn more in our report, When Cities Burn: Could the LA fires happen here?.

What is expected in the future?

Unfortunately, fire weather across Australia will get worse. Climate change is driving hotter temperatures alongside drier conditions across southern Australia – increasing the risk of bushfires. Southern and eastern parts of the country will see more days of dangerous fire weather, longer fire seasons and the potential for more megafires.

The latest research on the fire risks Australians face

The fires that ripped through the neighbourhoods of Los Angeles in the United States, in the middle of winter, shocked the world. They left many people asking: could this happen here in Australia? 

Our latest Climate Council and Emergency Leaders for Climate Action report, When Cities Burn: Could the LA fires happen here?, finds: 

1. Climate pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas shaped the dangerous and extreme weather conditions that drove these fires.

Record dryness; non-arrival of the typical annual wet season; and hurricane-like winds gusting up to 160 kmh.

2. The outskirts of many Australian cities share the dangerous characteristics that made the LA fires so destructive

Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart are all vulnerable.

Many of our own bushfires have exhibited the same, unstoppable behaviour: During Black Saturday 2009 in Victoria, the fire danger index exceeded 200 (with 100 the upper limit of recognised fire danger rating up until 2009).

Fire-generated thunderstorms, or pyroconvective events, were relatively rare with 60 such events recorded in Australia in the 40 years up to 2018. During Black Summer, at least 45 fire-generated thunderstorms were recorded.

While we associate our most destructive fires with extreme heat, bushfires only need a combination of dryness and strong wind to grow and spread rapidly. 

3. Just like in LA, more people than ever are living in harm’s way on the fast-growing urban fringes of Australian cities

There has been a 65.5% average jump since 2001 across Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Hobart, Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide with 6.9 million people are now living on the outskirts of these cities.

Had the Black Summer bushfires directly impacted the edges of our cities or major regional centres, such as Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, the NSW Central Coast, the Dandenong ranges, the Adelaide Hills, the Perth Hills or Hobart, then property losses on the scale of LA could have occurred.

Up to 90% of Australian homes in high-risk fire zones were also built before modern bushfire standards existed — making ignition due to ember attack and house-to-house fire spread far more likely.

4. This is costing all of us – today.

Since 2020, insurance premiums have increased by 78% to 138% for homes in bushfire-prone Local Government Areas within Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Even those who don’t live in the path of fires or floods, are paying for more insurance today, because climate-fuelled weather everywhere means higher insurance for everyone.

What can be done?

As a priority, all governments must:

• Cut climate pollution from coal, oil and gas more swiftly and deeply if we’re to avoid even worse.
• Invest heavily in disaster preparation and community resilience at all levels of government so we’re as prepared as possible for the worsening fire risks we already face.
• As a priority, increase emergency service and land management capacity at the urban fringe of our cities and major regional centres so growing populations are better protected for what’s to come.

The post The facts about bushfires and climate change appeared first on Climate Council.

2011 was the worst year of my life. I was living in the Northern Territory, working as Chief Fire Control Officer and that year, 67% of the Territory burnt. A death in my family cast a pall over my personal life, but the horrendous fire season turned work from ‘challenging but rewarding’ to ‘impossibly challenging and dangerous’. 

While much of the Northern Territory is desert or semi-desert, it periodically receives huge rainfall, and this encourages intense vegetation growth. Much of this is grass and scrub which grow rapidly, creating a blanket that stretches out to the horizon. As the weather clears, and temperatures climb back to the 40’s, the plants dry out and create a seamless cover of bushfire fuel. 

This pattern, supercharged by climate change, repeats every ten to twelve years with devastating impacts. 2011 was one of those years and I fear we are heading into another. As I write, the first of the fires have started to rage in the Northern Territory, and the peak council for Australian Fire and Emergency Services has indicated that as much as 80% of the region may burn this summer. Fire seasons are getting worse, and climate change is the culprit. 

Read our latest report on Australia’s bushfire preparedness here.

In 2011, fire preparation practices were manifestly inadequate, constrained by budget as well as weather. The window for fire management (the period when the weather is suitable for fuel reduction burning) had become narrower. 

Even back then, climate change meant that the small number of people dedicated to reducing fire risk had much less time to do it. To make matters worse, introduced grass species, gamba in the north and buffel in the south dramatically increased fuel density. Fires burned higher and hotter.

When the fires started, it was all hands to the pumps. Intense efforts were made to protect infrastructure and homes, but a huge amount of damage occurred. Fires wiped out habitat critical for saving the endangered desert rock rat and the mala from extinction. Time and again, people just managed to escape, their lives forever changed by other losses.

I vividly remember the afternoon we dispatched one of our most experienced bushfire managers to try to hold a fire that was encroaching on Alice Springs. A Warramunga man, he got off the plane from Darwin and went straight to the fire front. He quickly organised a massive back burn along bush tracks west of the town. This took immense confidence and courage. By about 9:30 that night I started to get phone calls from fearful residents who saw the towering walls of flame. What they saw was, in fact, the success of the backburn; it had joined up with the wildfire, leaving a trail devoid of fuel that saved their homes. 

Lives were undoubtedly saved by the decisions made by the likes of my colleague in 2011. But today, the only decision that can save us from a future marred by much worse fire seasons, is the decision to leave fossil fuels in the ground. 

Climate change continues to make fire management ever more difficult. Twelve years on and we know much more about the driving forces behind worsening extreme weather, but we’re not doing nearly enough about it. Just months ago, the Northern Territory Government announced that it would go ahead with a fracking project in the Beetaloo Basin, projected to emit the equivalent of more than three times Australia’s annual domestic emissions over the next two decades. We’re adding fuel to the fire by approving new fossil projects like this, heating up Australia and the world, priming the planet to burn.

Just like it was twelve years ago, the centre of Australia is covered with vegetation. Three La Niña years are likely to be followed by an El Niño. The weather is more extreme; already, the hottest days are hotter and there are more of them. We know to expect warm, windy weather just when the vegetation is at its driest. The fire conditions have become so bad that our official fire danger rating will be pushed into the category of ‘catastrophic’.

We have to drastically and urgently reduce our emissions if we want to give our country a fighting chance against fire seasons to come. If we don’t, I fear for communities in the Northern Territory and across Australia, who may well experience the worst year of their lives, just as I did in 2011.

The post 80% of the Northern Territory could burn this summer –  why are we still adding fuel to the fire? appeared first on Climate Council.

By Professor Will Steffen, Climate Councillor

In recent days, thousands of people across New South Wales and the ACT have sweltered through another dangerous heatwave. Climate change is driving hotter and more frequent days like this and Australians are highly vulnerable.

The impacts of extreme weather on our health and wellbeing are escalating. The recent fires led to the deaths of nearly 500 Australians. The fires directly killed 33 people, and another 429 died from smoke inhalation. And heatwaves kill more Australians than all other extreme events combined. Climate-fuelled floods, droughts and violent storms all take their toll on our individual and community wellbeing.

Extreme weather events are also costly. A new report from the Climate Council finds the cost of extreme weather in Australia has more than doubled since the 1970s, and totalled $35 billion over the past decade. By 2038, extreme weather events driven by climate change, as well as the impacts of sea-level rise, could cost the Australian economy $100 billion every year.

The 2019-2020 period was remarkable for the number and intensity of extreme weather events, fuelled by climate change, that battered not only Australia but also many other parts of the world: unprecedented fires, extreme heat, powerful cyclones and devastating floods.

Here in Australia, the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires are still fresh in our minds. The impacts of this tragedy bear repeating. About 21% of our eastern broad-leafed forests burned, compared to an annual average of 2%. About three billion animals were either killed or displaced by the fires. The psychological damage that Australians suffered from this climate change-driven disaster was immense.

But that wasn’t all that climate change had in store for Australians in 2019-2020.

Exceptional heat in 2019 – the continent’s annual maximum temperature was over 2°C above average – challenged the coping capacity of humans. Penrith hit 48.9°C on 4 January 2020, making it the hottest place on Earth on that day. Over the 2019-2020 summer western Sydney recorded 37 days over 35°C.

Increasing heat in the oceans is also driving extreme events. Oceans around Australia have warmed by about 1°C since 1910, triggering three mass bleaching events of the Great Barrier Reef in just the last five years. The Reef is reeling, with 50% of its hard corals now dead. Kelp forests and sea grasses are also suffering permanent damage from warming seawater.

Other types of extreme weather events drove damaging impacts. Beaches and property along Sydney’s northern beaches and the NSW central coast were severely eroded by huge swells and high tides, riding on higher sea levels driven by climate change. In January 2020, giant hailstones rained down on Canberra, damaging cars and houses.

Globally, extreme weather events battered many parts of the planet, from Siberia to the tropics.

Perhaps the most astounding event of all was an intense, persistent and widespread heatwave in 2020 that spread across Siberia, breaking temperature records, triggering large fires, and thawing permafrost. The Russian town of Verkhoyansk recorded a temperature of 38°C in June, likely the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.

There is no doubt that climate change played a large role in these weather extremes, particularly in their severity. As the Earth continues to warm, extreme weather events are occurring in a climate system that has become hotter and more energetic, and in an atmosphere that carries more water vapour. This increases the likelihood as well as the severity of extreme weather.

Scientists can now attribute particular extreme weather events to climate change by calculating the likelihood that a particular event could have occurred without climate change. For example, Australia’s hot spring in 2020 was ‘virtually impossible’ without the influence of climate change, and a similar attribution study showed that the 2020 Siberian heatwave was made at least 600 times more likely as a result of climate change.

Despite these disturbing realities, there is cause for some optimism. The United States under President Biden has prioritised climate action, our main trading partners have recently set net-zero emissions targets and the UN Secretary-General has called on governments to ensure their COVID recovery plans mark a ‘true turning point’ for people and the planet.

Read more about the impacts of climate change fuelled extreme weather in our new report, Hitting Home: the compounding costs of climate inaction.

The post The Deadly Costs of Climate Inaction appeared first on Climate Council.

The report recognises that we need to act on multiple fronts, including government measures on energy and the environment. The implication of this could not be any clearer: stronger action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a fundamental part of addressing Australia’s escalating disaster risks.

The report outlines 80 recommendations that cover a broad spectrum of issues: from understanding climate risks and boosting firefighting capability, to wildlife protection and leadership of first nations.

The Federal Government must adopt every single one of the recommendations in this report and, importantly, act on the root cause of worsening bushfires in Australia by taking urgent steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Through our extensive evidence-based submission, expert witness testimony and an open letter signed by more than 9,000 Climate Council supporters, we urged the Commission to strengthen the call for climate action as one of the central pillars of its recommendations.

We also provided the Australian Bushfire and Climate Plan to the Commissioners – developed by Emergency Leaders for Climate Action in collaboration with hundreds of community leaders, scientists, firefighters, medics and other experts.

And it’s clear now that we, and the many other determined organisations and individuals across the country, have had a big impact. So big that our plan is cited as a reference in the findings, and the word ‘climate’ appears in the report a total of 90 times.

The Royal Commission has delivered a strong message to our Federal Politicians, and now we must ensure they act on the recommendations outlined in the report.

“The Federal Government absolutely has to act on the root cause of worsening bushfires in Australia, and take urgent steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This clearly means no new coal or gas, and a rapid transition to renewable energy,” Greg Mullins, Climate Councillor, founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action and former Commissioner, Fire and Rescue NSW.

What are the key recommendations?

Many of the key recommendations of the Royal Commission are targeted at helping communities prepare, adapt and build resilience to climate change.

Importantly, the report compels the Federal Government to tackle the root cause of escalating bushfire risk: climate change. This means no new fossil fuels (coal, oil or gas), and a rapid transition to renewable energy.

Key points from the report include:

• Climate change impacts: The Royal Commission acknowledges that climate change fuelled the Black Summer bushfires, and that more dangerous weather conditions for Australia are likely to occur throughout the country in the future due to a warming climate: “As the events of the 2019-2020 bushfire season show, what was unprecedented is now our future.”
• Climate change mitigation: It is impossible to read this report without recognising that stronger action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a fundamental part of addressing our escalating disaster risks: “Warming beyond the next 20 to 30 years is largely dependent on the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions.”
• Hazard reduction: The report takes a nuanced view of hazard reduction activities, acknowledging that while they can reduce risk, their value is diminished in extreme weather fuelled by climate change. It states unequivocally that hazard reduction is not a panacea: “We heard many perspectives from public submissions that describe prescribed burning as, in effect, a panacea – a solution to bushfire risk. It is not.”
• The rising costs of extreme weather and climate change: “Direct and indirect disaster costs in Australia are projected to increase from an average of $18.2 billion per year to $39 billion per year by 2050, even without accounting for climate change. The costs associated with natural disasters include significant, and often long-term, social impacts, including death and injury and impacts on employment, education, community networks, health and wellbeing.”
• Other recommendations: There are many other findings and recommendations, including upgrading our firefighting capabilities, better coordination between agencies, consistent public information and warnings, and prioritising mental health.
• Accountability: The Royal Commission recommends that “the Australian Government establishes accountability and assurance mechanisms to promote continuous improvement and best practice in natural disaster arrangements.” It is accountable to Australians for doing so and should accept and implement all of the relevant recommendations.

What’s next?

We will be watching closely and applying the necessary pressure to ensure the Federal Government implements all recommendations from the Royal Commission.

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action have just launched an accountability tracker; highlighting ten key recommendations from the report, to publicly track how long it takes for each of these recommendations to be implemented.

We’ll use the accountability tracker to make sure the Federal Government feels the heat: drawing media, political and public attention to exactly how long it takes for this Government to implement the Royal Commission recommendations.

And we’ll also be upping the pressure behind the scenes – briefing decision-makers, journalists, and the Australian people on what the Federal Government needs to do to reduce emissions and protect our communities.

Together, we must fight to make sure the Federal Government implements the recommendations from the Bushfire Royal Commission, and acts urgently to cut our emissions. Can you join our campaign to hold the Federal Government accountable by chipping in today?

The post Unpacking the Bushfire Royal Commission report appeared first on Climate Council.

As we witnessed last summer, the number of houses destroyed during bushfires in Australia has not been stemmed by advances in weather forecasting, building design and the increased use of large water-bombing aircraft.

At the latest count, more than 3,500 homes were destroyed the summer just gone, which makes this the most destructive bushfire season in Australia’s history.

The principal reason for the continually high rate of destruction is that so many homes are being built close to bushland. An estimated 85% of all houses destroyed in bushfires in Australia are within 100m of the bush.

It follows that clearing vegetation around houses is at the forefront of advice provided by fire authorities to homeowners in bushfire-prone areas.

A home without trees and shrubs around it is the safest option during a bushfire. But realistically, many people will want to retain some vegetation. And there are ways to do this sensibly.

Houses lost in bushfires

Approximate number of houses destroyed per decade during bushfires in Australia with the most destructive bushfire events included.

Is clearing bushland the solution?

Research shows houses close to bushland are more effectively protected by clearing trees and shrubs within approximately 40m of the home.

There are laws in most states and territories, such as New South Wales’ 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Scheme, that permit this to some extent.

But if all homeowners in bushfire-prone areas exercised their right to clear trees and shrubs, places such as the Blue Mountains, Perth Hills, Mount Lofty Ranges, Dandenongs and our coastal towns like Mallacoota, Margaret River and Batemans Bay would be vastly different in character.

Residents and tourists are attracted to these areas for the aesthetics, privacy, wildlife and shade native trees and shrubs provide.

A study of rural-residential areas north of Melbourne found property values were higher where there was a considerable cover of native vegetation. We not only like our native bush, we are prepared to pay for it.

Because many people value trees and shrubs around their homes, it is not realistic to expect uniformly low fuel loads within bushfire-prone parts of Australia.

Can we have our cake and eat it?

We analysed data collected before and after the 2009 Black Saturday Fires, in which 2,133 houses were destroyed.

We found that the extent of “greenness” of vegetation surrounding homes had a bearing on whether the structure withstood fire.

Greenness refers to the extent to which plants are actively growing. Houses with trees and shrubs within 40m were slightly less likely to be destroyed if the vegetation had relatively high values of “greenness”, as compared to houses surrounded by vegetation with low greenness value.

This makes sense because greener vegetation, typically with higher moisture content, has lower flammability, requires more energy to ignite and therefore can reduce the intensity of a fire.

Thus, watering your garden through summer, if this is feasible, or choosing plants with high moisture content (such as succulents) may reduce the bushfire risk compared with the same amount of vegetation with a lower moisture content.

We also found the risk to houses during bushfire was slightly less where trees and shrubs within 40m were not continuous, but instead arranged as discrete patches separated by a ground layer with low fuel hazard, such as mown grass.

As trees and shrubs become less continuous the heat transfer between patches becomes less efficient and the intensity of the fire is likely to decline.

Provided bushfires in your area come from a predictable direction, retaining more trees and shrubs downwind of this direction from your house poses less risk than the same cover of trees and shrubs retained upwind from your house.

This makes sense because burning embers, which are the main cause of house losses during bushfires, travel in the direction of the wind.

Clearing vegetation around homes is at the forefront of advice from fire authorities. AAP

You can’t eliminate risk from bushfires

We must emphasise that while these strategies can strike a balance between retaining trees and shrubs and preparing for bushfires, they will not guarantee your home will survive a bushfire – especially in severe fire weather.

So in addition to vegetation management, other strategies – such as building design, adequate insurance and evacuating early to a safer place – should be considered in every household’s bushfire planning.

The post If you’re worried about bushfires but want to keep your leafy garden, follow these tips appeared first on Climate Council.

New South Wales and Queensland have suffered more property damage and area burned than in any previous fire season, with the worst fire danger period yet to come for Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.

In the wake of all this destruction, there has been a great deal of misinformation about the cause of these catastrophic bushfires. Debates around ‘hazard reduction burning’ (or prescribed burning) have clouded the media and political discussions, which has left a lot of people feeling confused about what that really means, and the role climate change has to play.

So we’ve decided to set the record straight and make sure all Australians are equipped with the facts on hazard reduction and the role of climate change in this catastrophic bushfire season.

Download the full factsheet on hazard reduction here

Firstly, let’s get one thing clear: Climate change is influencing bushfire seasons in Australia

The nature of bushfires in Australia is changing: climate change is driving an increase in extreme fire weather, and making fire seasons longer, across Australia. The below graphic explains how climate change is affecting bushfires in Australia.

Climate change is affecting bushfires in Australia in a number of ways. 

So what is hazard reduction?

Hazard reduction refers to preparations for fires that usually happen outside of the bushfire season. This involves activities like ‘prescribed’ or ‘controlled’ burning, which aims to reduce leaf litter and debris in forested areas that are in close proximity to assets such as properties, or mechanically thinning vegetation. As burning can increase the flammability of some vegetation types over certain time periods, hazard reduction can also involve intentionally not burning some areas (known as fire exclusion).

The goal of hazard reduction is not to produce areas that will not burn, but areas that will burn at a lower intensity that can be controlled more easily by firefighters.

Download the full factsheet on hazard reduction here

Are hazard reduction and back burning the same thing?

No. Hazard reduction burning is different from backburning. Backburning is a method of firefighting. It is used after a bushfire has started and involves burning a firebreak to remove dry debris and plants (fuel) in the path of an approaching fire and create containment lines or tactical advantage for firefighters.

Hazard reduction does not remove the threat of fires.

Hazard reduction is one way of preparing for bushfires, and is an important aspect of bushfire management, but it doesn’t remove the threat of bushfires. In fact, hazard reduction can have very little effect on the spread of fire in severe, extreme or catastrophic fire danger conditions – like we’ve experienced in Australia this bushfire season.

Shane Fitzsimmons is the Commissioner of NSW RFS.

Climate change is making prescribed burning harder to do.

The window of opportunity for conducting safe burns has become much shorter due to hotter temperatures, drier conditions in southern Australia, and fewer days of low/moderate fire danger. This has been driven by climate change. As fire seasons lengthen, and with a reduction in cool season rainfall in southeastern Australia, prescribed burning is becoming much more difficult to carry out.

Despite this, the past decade saw NSW burn twice as much of its National Parks with prescribed burns compared to the decade before — more than in any previously mapped decade. So even though prescribed burning is becoming more difficult to do safely, the rate of burning has increased, rather than decreased as has been falsely reported.

Bushfires will only continue to get worse — and prescribed burning more difficult to carry out safely — as climate change continues to escalate.

Unless we address climate change and urgently reduce our emissions as part of a global effort, the window of opportunity for prescribed burning will continue to shrink. And as bushfire weather worsens, the effectiveness of hazard reduction will diminish. No amount of hazard reduction will protect human lives, animals and properties from catastrophic fires.

Australia must commit to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero urgently, as part of a global effort, to address the root cause of worsening extreme weather — climate change. The time we take to reach net-zero emissions will determine how much worse these climate change impacts become. The terrible bushfires of 2019/2020 should serve as a wake-up call to our Federal Government. We must stop extracting and burning coal, oil and gas – the key drivers of climate change.

Got more questions about bushfires and climate change? Check out our BUSHFIRES AND CLIMATE CHANGE INFO HUB for guides, explainers, videos, infographics and more.

Download the full factsheet on hazard reduction here

The post The Facts About Hazard Reduction appeared first on Climate Council.