The Cost of Climate Change to Australian Food

The current piece is based on the Australian Climate Council’s report “The Costs of Climate Change”

The agriculture system was worth $230 billion dollars in 2012–13, making up about 13.6% of Australia’s economy. Australia is one of the most vulnerable developed countries in the world when it comes to the effects of climate change.

This year saw “The greatest livestock disaster Australia has ever seen”. Drought followed by flooding in Queensland has lead to the death of an estimated 664,000 cattle valued at an estimated $800 million. Combined with the millennium drought and the 2015 drought, Australian agriculture is notably vulnerable to climate change.

According to the CSIRO and BoM, severe droughts and floods are expected to become more frequent, especially across southern Australia. It is estimated that by 2050, without mitigation, we are projected to lose half of the irrigated agricultural output of the Murray-Darling Basin, currently worth $3.5 billion.

There has yet to be an in-depth investigation into the effects of climate change for the Australian economy, the following plot provided by the climate council shows estimates. It’s not an inspiring story.