The amount of coal and other fossil fuels the world can burn without unleashing dangerous climate change that will undermine the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people and all but wipe out the Great Barrier Reef is "very small", according to a major climate report.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's special report on a 1.5-degree hotter planet, released on Monday, said limiting warming to that amount remains possible, but only with "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society".
The coming years will be critical for keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees - but even then the impacts could be severe for Australia and many other nations.
The coming years will be critical for keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees - but even then the impacts could be severe for Australia and many other nations.
For Australia, the report - based on some 6000 research references and compiled by dozens of scientists - found it likely the continent was already experiencing warmer days and fewer cool nights. Eastern coastal regions were among areas experiencing reduced rainfall and run-off.
The report's projections, though, are what the authors hope policymakers will address. It was prompted by the 2015 Paris climate conference when almost 200 nations including Australia signed up to keep warming to between 1.5-2 degrees compared with pre-industrial times.
'The Great Barrier Reef, already hammered by unprecedented coral bleaching in a world that has warmed about 1 degree, faces annihilation if warming continues apace.
Globally, coral reefs would decline by a further 70 to 90 per cent under global warming of 1.5 degrees and "virtually all" would be lost with 2 degrees.
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