SYDNEY, Feb 14 (NNN-Xinhua) — Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe warned that climate change is having an effect on the country’s economy and that more should be done to tap into renewable industries.
Speaking at an economic forum in Melbourne, Lowe explained that occurrences linked to climate change such as the recent bushfire disaster and drought, on top of negative consumer sentiment, were likely to have an increasing economic impact.
“The world is getting hotter and the climate is more variable. We’re seeing already in Australia, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, the effects of that,” he said.
“The economic implications are profound.”
According to Lowe, Australia’s agriculture industry is already suffering, with an ongoing drought set to hit the country’s economic growth this year by 0.25 of a percentage point, while the summer’s bushfire disaster would likely cut growth by about 0.2 percentage points.
“Climate change is affecting the nature of production in Australia, the nature of investment, ultimately the nature of our exports. At the moment, I think it’s affecting confidence of people and therefore ultimately spending,” Lowe said.
“Addressing climate change isn’t something that is any responsibility of the Reserve Bank of Australia, but what we do have a responsibility to do is to understand the economic and the financial implication of climate change.” — NNN-XINHUA