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Bud Moses is all too aware of the longer, hotter summers impacting his community in Sydney\u2019s west.<\/p>\n
As black summer bushfires raged on 4 January 2020, Penrith was sweltering in temperatures of 48.9C, making it the hottest place on the planet that day. It was just one of a growing number of above-40C days Moses has witnessed in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the heat get a lot worse \u2013 it\u2019s one of the clear physical attributes of climate change that most people seem to understand,\u201d Moses, the western Sydney organiser of the Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales, said.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Landmark climate report shows ‘every Australian has a lot at stake’, minister says \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople talk about what impacts them \u2013 and here, that\u2019s heatwaves, flooding and bushfires,\u201d he said of the locals he meets when running Tabiea, a joint Nature Conservation Council and Arab Council Australia climate change awareness campaign targeting western Sydney\u2019s culturally diverse community.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot for them to take physically and mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise to him that Sydney\u2019s west and south have emerged as \u201cheat-health risk\u201d hotspots in the federal government\u2019s long-awaited national climate risk assessment.<\/p>\n Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton\u2019s Clear Air column as a free newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n Warming across the Australian continent has already reached 1.5C, Monday\u2019s report by the Australian Climate Service (ACS) noted. Under a 3C scenario, the number of heat-related deaths in Sydney increases by 444%.<\/p>\n With heatwaves causing more deaths in Australia than all other extreme events combined, the report found Blacktown and the outer west are some of Sydney\u2019s most exposed suburbs when considering the health risks associated with ever-hotter summers.<\/p>\n Extreme heat may lead to higher rates of heat-related illness which in turn will put additional strain on emergency services and hospital infrastructure, according to the assessment.<\/p>\n Moses said many in his community live in rented or social housing and do not have access to air conditioning \u2013 and those who do limit its use because of cost-of-living pressures. The area needed shaded bus stops, more green space and better environmental standards in rented homes, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you talk to doctors in relation to heat stress, all the forecasts are showing that it\u2019s going to have an impact, especially on old and vulnerable people,\u201d Moses said.<\/p>\n A temperature rise of 3C would, he said, \u201cbe dire\u201d.<\/p>\n Dr Judith Landberg, head of the ACS, told a Senate committee on Tuesday the number of heat-related deaths in Sydney was currently between 80 and 117 annually.<\/p>\n <\/span>Heat-health risk index map of Sydney, provided by the Australian Climate Service<\/span><\/p>\n The Blacktown mayor, Brad Bunting, said the report confirmed the experiences of and research undertaken by his council.<\/p>\n \u201cBlacktown is on the frontline of extreme heat, and the national report shows how serious the risks are for our community,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n The council is part of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, which developed the 2021 Heat Smart Western Sydney plan to prepare for and respond to heatwaves. The Blue Mountains, Liverpool, Cumberland and Hawkesbury councils are also members.<\/p>\n \u201cUrban heat is not just an environmental challenge. It affects health, liveability and how we plan our city,\u201d Bunting said.<\/p>\n Heat-health risk is lowered by urban greening, according to the report, with the leafy, generally affluent suburbs of the northern beaches, north Sydney and Hornsby found to have lower heat-health risk. The city\u2019s eastern suburbs have a moderate heat-health risk.<\/p>\n Dr Milton Speer, a meteorologist and fellow with the University Technology Sydney, said his research comparing weather observations from 1962 to 2021 between Observatory Hill on Sydney harbour and Richmond revealed the west was often 5C warmer.<\/p>\n In the west, one in 10 days exceeded 35.4C. On the coast, one in 10 days was above 30.4C. One in 20 days reached 37.8C or more in the west.<\/p>\n Speer said western Sydney was further from sea breezes which can regulate the heat \u2013 \u201cand the fact that there are fewer trees is very important\u201d.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Clear Air Australia<\/span><\/p>\n Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cElderly people especially can suffer heat stress if exposed outside for long enough or at night if there\u2019s no air con during heatwaves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Alongside rising temperatures, Sydney faces the threat of rising sea levels.<\/p>\n Sea level rise, storm surges and extreme weather events make coastal cities particularly vulnerable given their extensive infrastructure, dense populations and economic significance, the report states.<\/p>\n Suburbs with increased exposure to sea level rise include the inner-city suburbs of Darlinghurst, Haymarket, Millers Point, Double Bay and Darling Point, according to the assessment.<\/p>\n Kogarah, in Sydney\u2019s south, was also named \u2013 despite, like Darlinghurst, not being situated on the shoreline. Darlinghurst is generally about 50 metres above sea level, while Kogarah\u2019s elevation is about 30 metres.<\/p>\n <\/span>Aerial view of flooding at North Narrabeen, on Sydney\u2019s northern beaches, in April.<\/span> Photograph: AAP<\/p>\n It is understood the report\u2019s analysis included areas within 10km of the coastline and that the effects of sea level rise were not constrained to the coastline.<\/p>\n The Australian National University emeritus professor and chair of the assessment\u2019s expert advisory committee, Mark Howden, said its authors had taken a conservative approach which did not reflect current expert assessments of future sea level rise.<\/p>\n In a 3C scenario, the sea level would rise 54cm, according to the report.<\/p>\n A separate research paper had put sea level rise at a median point of 111cm within a range of 62cm-238cm in a high emissions scenario, he said.<\/p>\n The City of Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, said her council, which covers some of the country\u2019s most densely populated postcodes, was doing its \u201cbest to ensure the city remains climate-resilient and adapts to additional extreme heat, drought, storms, flash flooding and rising sea levels\u201d \u2013 but that heat was its priority.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are most concerned about the impact of hotter days, for longer periods,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are currently in the process of updating our floodplain management plans to prepare the city for sea level rise, while also advocating for state government guidance to be updated to reflect recent climate modelling.\u201d<\/p>\n She said addressing sea level rise was a bigger issue than any one council could address alone and should be led by state and federal governments.<\/p>\n The assessment suggests the effect of Sydney\u2019s rising sea level may be more widespread, with saltwater intrusions threatening freshwater supplies and water security across the city.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Georges River council, which covers Kogarah, said in a statement the council was \u201ccommitted to the current and future resilience\u201d of the LGA and was actively planning for a climate-resilient future.<\/p>\n They said the council would \u201cconsider the insights\u201d in the report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bud Moses is all too aware of the longer, hotter summers impacting his community in Sydney\u2019s west. As black summer bushfires raged on 4 January 2020, Penrith was sweltering in temperatures of 48.9C, making it the hottest place on the planet that day. It was just one of a growing number of above-40C days Moses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[752,1485,587,2395,11968,37,104,982,4234,11893,1162,1183,2187],"class_list":{"0":"post-21626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-biggest","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-extreme","11":"tag-faces","12":"tag-frontline","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-heat","15":"tag-risks","16":"tag-sydney","17":"tag-sydneys","18":"tag-threat","19":"tag-water","20":"tag-west"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Suburbs exposed to sea level rise<\/h2>\n
Saltwater intrusions into freshwater supplies<\/h2>\n