Australia expects to have more extreme weather due to climate change: report

CANBERRA, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Australia is expected to experience more and worse extreme weather as a result of climate change, said a new report released on Wednesday by the Climate Commission.

Climate change is already increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather, including heatwaves, fires, cyclones, heavy rainfall and drought in Australia, leading to worse droughts and more frequent flooding rains, the report said.

In the report, titled The Critical Decade: Extreme Weather, the commission noted that the global climate system is warmer and moister than 50 years ago, with the extra heat making extreme weather events more frequent and severe.

This has resulted in the extreme bushfires and floods that have engulfed Australian communities in recent years.

According to Bureau of Meteorology, the past summer was Australia's hottest, capped by the longest and most extreme heatwave on record.

The effects of extreme weather have a corresponding dramatic impact on communities and infrastructure, with the economic cost often running to billions of dollars.

"Only strong preventative action now and in the coming years can stabilize the climate and halt the trend of increasing extreme weather for our children and grandchildren," the commission's Chief Commissioner Tim Flannery said.

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne welcomed the report, saying the release of the report "should end climate denial and put higher greenhouse reduction targets and adaptation to existing warming on the political agenda."

She called on the Labor government and Coalition to restore funding for whole-of-government planning on climate change, and come clean on who will pay for the ever increasing damages bill.

"The cost of not acting on climate change is greater than the cost of acting," she said.