Global warming to cost Australia up to $274 bln – report

Australia could face economic losses of an estimated 423 billion Australin dollar ($274 billion), through the direct impacts of higher temperatures on labour productivity, according to the sixth intergenerational report released on Thursday.

The nation’s productivity could be cut by between 0.2 percent to 0.8 percent under worst case scenarios in which a rise in global temperatures exceeds 3C (37F), the Australian government’s latest Intergenerational Report (IGR) showed.

It is worth mentioning that Australia is part of global commitments under the Paris Agreement to hold increases in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.