Australian Climate Change Science Programme

The Australian Government supports a broad range of greenhouse science research activities. This helps us to better understand global and regional climate change and its potential impact on Australia's natural and managed systems.

The Australian Climate Change Science Programme aims to improve our understanding of the causes, nature, timing and consequences of climate change so that industry, community and government decisions can be better informed. The programme is administered by the Department of Climate Change and conducted in partnership with leading science agencies, notably the CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

• Australian climate change research: perspectives on successes, challenges and future directions
• Strategic Research Agenda 2004-2008
• Major Achievements 1989-2004

Key themes

Australia is already recognised internationally for the quality of its climate change science, and has the most comprehensive programme of southern hemisphere climate research. This programme will continue to build that expertise in order to enhance Australia's science capacity and increase the global research effort in our region.

The programme addresses six key themes:

• understanding the key drivers of climate change in Australia
• improved climate modelling system
• climate change, climate variability and extreme events
• regional climate change projections
• international research collaboration
• communications.

Current consensus on climate change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produces regular reports dealing with the science of climate change, most recently the Fourth Assessment Report , released in 2007. The Fourth Assessment Report was prepared and reviewed by several hundred of the world's leading climate scientists, and represents the consensus view of the scientists involved.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is 30% higher today than in pre-industrial times and is higher than it has been for at least 650,000 years and the current rate of increase is very likely to have been unprecedented in more than 10,000 years. Burning fossil fuels is the main source of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. The concentration of many other greenhouse gases has also increased significantly since pre-industrial times as a result of human activities.

Over the last 100 years the Earth's global average surface temperature increased by 0.7°C over the course of the 20th century, and most of the observed warming over the last fifty years is very likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.

The Fourth Assessment Report projects an increase of between 1.1 and 6.4°C in the globally averaged surface temperature over the period 1990 to 2100. About half of the uncertainty in this projection arises from uncertainty about future greenhouse gas emissions and about half from uncertainties in global climate models.

Changes in rainfall, sea level and extreme events (storms, cyclones, droughts etc) are also expected as the climate changes.

For more specific information about projected climate change in Australia see Climate Change - An Australian Guide to the Science and Potential Impacts.