Canberra, Oct 31
Australia's climate has warmed by an average of 1.51 degrees Celsius (C) since records began in 1910, a landmark report has found.
National science agencies, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), published the latest State of the Climate Report on Thursday, which they have prepared every two years since 2010.
The 2024 report found that the changing climate has caused an increase in extreme heat events, longer bushfire seasons, more intense heavy rainfall events and sea level rise, reports news agency.
It said that oceans around Australia are continuing to warm and that higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere have led to more acidic oceans, particularly south of Australia.
According to the report, Australia's temperature has warmed by an average of 1.51 C since 1910, exceeding the maximum warming goal of 1.5 C set under the 2016 Paris Agreement, and sea surface temperatures have increased by an average of 1.08 C since 1900.
Eight of Australia's nine warmest years on record have occurred since 2013, including the warmest year on record in 2019. On a global scale, 2023 was the warmest year on record.
Jaci Brown, a CSIRO research manager and co-author of the report, said that the highest average sea surface temperatures on record occurred in 2022.