Assignment Help on Climate Change Impact

Introduction

Increasing greenhouse gases has led to climate change across the globe and its impact is significant in Australia (Aldy & Stavins 2012). Australia and its surrounding islands have started facing increased risk from rising sea levels and storm surges resulting from climate change by 2009 and it continued to increase (BBC News 2014). It impacted the coastal settlement and ecosystem significantly and it was predicted that over the years it will have a significant economic impact. As Australia was the highest carbon emitter per head as compared to other developed nations it led to the introduction of policies to address carbon emission issue (CBC News 2014). The report critically analyses the two carbon policies introduced by different Australian governments. The report also analyses the impact of climate change which is a result of increased carbon emission on horticultural sector and discusses the risks and opportunities for the sector. In the end the repot provides adaptation strategies for the horticultural sector.

Climate Change Impact on Horticulture Industry

Horticulture industry in Australia is third largest and employs one in four agricultural workers. Horticulture contributed about 25.5% of gross value of production of Australian agriculture and enhances the quality of life of people across the nation and plays an important role in delivering national food security (CCRSPI 2009). Climate change has led to increasing challenges in the horticulture sector as the sector highly depends on natural resources mainly irrigation (Akinnagbe & Irohibe 2014). The climate variations make horticulture inherently vulnerable to impact of short-term variability of climate and long-term changes in the climate. The reduced rainfall and increasing temperatures due to climate change are expected to lead to regular and intense droughts and bush fires, which would lead to increased stress on water resources (Patterson 2015). Fruits require specific number of hours below a certain threshold temperature, which if not available they cannot reproduce (Akinnagbe & Irohibe 2014). More extreme weathers in the northern Australian parts is expected to affect crops like bananas and sugarcane and in southern parts due to reduced rainfall more droughts and heat waves are expected that can affect crop growth (Patterson 2015). Climate change is expected to bring changes in growing conditions and hence affect suitability of regions for various horticultural crops, it can increase risk of spread of soil borne diseases, change distribution of pests, weeds and diseases and lead to physiological disorders in plants such as tip burn and blossom end rot along with soil erosion (CCRSPI 2009). 

Rationale and Theoretical underpinnings of Carbon Tax and Direct Action Plan

Australian government introduced a carbon pricing scheme or carbon tax by implementing Clean Energy Act 2011 (Andersson 2012). Carbon taxing is believed to provide certainty about marginal cost of compliance, which would reduce uncertainty about returns with respect to investment decisions (Aldy & Stavins 2012). Carbon tax could be applied by the government at various points in product cycle and provides administratively straightforward and simple approach to manage emissions in industrialized countries. The initiative by the then government was aimed at controlling emissions in the country and support growth of the economy by development of clean energy (Sheridan 2015). The polluters were required to pay certain amount of tax per tonne of carbon that is released by them into the atmosphere. The carbon tax was repealed in 2014 when the new government took the charge as carbon tax led to high energy bills and job losses (BBC News, 2014). The government was forced to create new bureaucracy, rebates red tape and free carbon credits to overcome the fallout from the tax. The implementation of carbon tax is found to increase cost of consuming energy and can adversely affect competitiveness of energy intensive industries and can lead to negative economic and environmental outcomes (Aldy & Stavins 2012). The carbon tax reflected the same impact in Australia wherein carbon taxes led to business closures as it increased cost of electricity for households and businesses significantly and the businesses passed on the cost to their customers, which led to increase in the prices of various commodities (BBC News 2014).