Action Needed on Climate Change and Energy Policy
AMA Vice President, Dr Choong-Siew Yong, said today the Federal Government must take urgent practical action to minimise the harmful effects that climate change will bring to human health in Australia and globally.
The AMA Federal Council, with representatives from all States and Territories and all the medical specialties, has an agreed position that human activity is causing climate change and that climate change will inevitably have a negative impact on human health.
Dr Yong said the AMA believes the climate change evidence is compelling and must be acted upon as a matter of national and international urgency, and that setting the nation's future energy options is a priority.
"There is still a window of opportunity for responsible governments around the world to introduce policies that will minimise the potentially catastrophic effects that climate change will have on human life and human health," Dr Yong said.
"Australia must take the initiative and show leadership on the most important global crisis of our time.
"A sure sign that the Government is taking the climate change seriously would be to define Australia's future energy options. As a community, we must recognise the consequences of fossil fuel burning on human health and set a mixed energy source course for the future based on clean fuels and renewable energy.
"There must be an open scientific analysis of the health impacts of all the different available energy options," Dr Yong said.
The AMA Federal Council has adopted the following resolution:
Given the urgent need to reduce use of fossil fuels to minimise the impact from climate change on human health and, given the unquantifiable but significant risks to human health from both fossil fuel burning and nuclear energy compared to renewable energy sources, the AMA calls for:
- evidence based programs to increase energy efficiency, including strong new mandatory efficiency laws for appliances, equipment, buildings and urban design
- an appropriate Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET). Previously the AMA had called for an MRET of 10 per cent by 2010 but government inaction means the AMA now calls for an MRET of at least 20 per cent by 2015
- better quantification of the risks to health of all energy sources, and for Governments to rapidly pursue the development of 'renewable' energy as the preferred alternative to fossil fuel burning for Australia's future energy needs, and to further this stance in the international arena.