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AAP
AAP
Fraser Barton

Election hopefuls urged to tackle severe weather threat

Government has been urged to tackle the threat of more and increasingly severe natural disasters. (Dan Peled/AAP PHOTOS)

Natural disasters are forecast to become more severe and unpredictable, prompting calls for an increase in emergency service volunteers.

Authorities have been urged to tackle a significant decline in volunteers after a report predicted disasters would only get worse due to climate change.

Queensland is considered Australia's most disaster-prone jurisdiction with bushfires, floods, cyclones, storms and heatwaves sometimes at the same time due to its geographical size.

The Sunshine State has endured 119 significant weather events since a major recovery and reconstruction authority was established in 2011, with 375,000 Queenslanders impacted in 2023/24 alone.

Water level gauge amid flooding in Maudsland on the Gold Coast
Climate change will lead to increasingly severe bushfires, heatwaves and floods, a report predicts. (JASON O’BRIEN/AAP PHOTOS)

In the past five years, 70 per cent of residents have experienced one or more floods and 57 per cent cyclonic or destructive storms.

Queensland is also coming off its most destructive fire season, with more than 1000 blazes including an inferno that claimed one life and 59 homes on the Western Downs west of Brisbane.

A report predicts climate change will lead to a dangerous mix of extreme weather with more and increasingly severe bushfires, heatwaves and floods.

The Emergency Leaders for Climate Action report shines a light on how significantly Queensland's environment has changed through mass fossil-fuel mining and climate change.

The state's disaster management system was effective with the fire department boosted by increased staffing, former Queensland fire commissioner Lee Johnson said.

Yet he called for action from both the federal and Queensland governments to reverse the volunteer decline as more disasters loom.

Queensland and the Commonwealth should establish new volunteer units that include people trained in community-led resilience and recovery, the report said.

They should also a pilot program of paid seasonal firefighters during predicted periods of heightened bushfire risk.

Electrical storm seen at Reedy Creek on the Gold Coast in 2023
New units should include people trained in community-led resilience and recovery, the report says. (Dave Hunt/AAP PHOTOS)

The State of Queensland: Disaster Ground Zero report also recommends no more coal, gas or oil projects and the expansion of a household resilience program.

"Unfortunately, we're playing catch-up because our temperature is increasing - 1.5 degrees since 1910," report co-author Mr Johnson told AAP.

"It's a very complex and difficult problem - there's no doubt about that - and whether people believe in it or not, it's happening,

"The danger for all of us is that any government, federal or state, that takes a backward step on renewable energy and the conversion to a low-carbon economy will do us enormous harm."

Earlier in 2024 the Queensland government legislated 50 per cent emissions reduction targets by 2030, and 75 per cent by 2035.

The reforms also lock in an 80 per cent renewable energy generation target by 2035 and entrench public ownership of energy assets.

"The very worrying concern is that a new government in Queensland will extensively regress what's been achieved," Mr Johnson said.

"And if that happens, we're just doing immense harm to our society, our community, our people, environment and economy."

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