The long-awaited national climate risk assessment found that rising temperatures will have "cascading, compounding, concurrent" impacts on life in Australia, home to more than 27 million people.
"We are living climate change now. It's no longer a forecast, a projection or prediction -- it is a live reality, and it's too late to avoid any impacts," Climate Minister Chris Bowen said.
The report, prepared independently for the government, found that 1.5 million people living in coastal areas will be at risk of sea level rise and coastal flooding by 2050.
By 2090, about three million people will be at risk from rising oceans.
Sea level rises pose a significant threat to homes, livelihoods, and cultural connections -- particularly in locations such as the Torres Strait Islands, the report said.
Scattered through the warm waters off Australia's northernmost tip, the sparsely populated islands are threatened by seas rising much faster than the global average.
Joanne Hill, community engagement coordinator at Edith Cowan University and an Indigenous woman, said in response to the report "we cannot delay this emergency response anymore".
"Our coastal and island communities, particularly the Torres Strait Islands, are at immediate risk of losing their homes, their cultural practices and traditions if we do not do anything now," Hill said.
Monday's report comes as Australia is set to release its next round of emissions reduction targets in the coming week, a key obligation under the landmark Paris climate agreement.
Many hope the country will reveal more ambitious targets.
- 'Terrifying' -
Losses in Australian property values are estimated to soar to Aus$611 billion (US$406 billion) by 2050 and could increase to Aus$770 billion by 2090.
Should the temperatures increase by 3C, heat-related deaths could soar by more than 400 percent in Sydney, Australia's most-populated city, the report said.
Australia's unique species will also be forced to move, adapt to the new conditions or die out as climate change intensifies, the report said.
Amanda McKenzie, chief executive of the Climate Council NGO, described the report as "terrifying".
"We can choose a better future by cutting climate pollution harder and faster now," McKenzie said.
"The first step is legislating the strongest possible 2035 climate target and stopping new polluting projects," she said.
One of the world's biggest fossil fuel exporters, Australia has been criticised for treating climate action as a political and economic liability.
The "climate wars" -- a years-long domestic fight over emissions policy -- were blamed for curtailing progress in cutting heat-trapping carbon emissions.
The centre-left Labor government has stepped up efforts in recent years to bring down emissions and roll out renewable energy.
However, despite its green ambitions, the government continues to approve fossil fuel projects, including granting a 40-year extension to a major liquefied natural gas plant.
The extended lifeline of the North West Shelf project -- a sprawling complex of offshore rigs and processing factories pumping out more than 10 million tonnes of LNG and petroleum each year -- has angered Indigenous and environmental groups.
Bowen said moving to a greener future presented a "complicated and complex" set of challenges and that gas would remain a necessary backup renewable in the future energy mix.
"But we also face that challenge from a position of strength, because we have the best renewable resources in the world," he said.
Against the tide: Filipinos battle rising sea on sinking island
Bulacan, Philippines (AFP) Sept 17, 2025 -
On the Philippine island of Pugad, street food vendor Maria Tamayo wakes before her grandchildren to begin the backbreaking work of removing seawater from her home scoop by scoop with a plastic dustpan.
The routine has been the same ever since the rising tides of Manila Bay began swallowing the island -- a seven-hectare speck of land in danger of sinking completely underwater.
"Scooping water takes a long time. That's why my feet have started aching," the 65-year-old said, adding that she can spend up to three hours a day at the task.
"I have to scoop out the water before my grandchildren wake up, or else they'll slip on the floor. But it's no use ... there's still water."
Tamayo is one of 2,500 people living in Pugad's only village.
The island is not the only one at risk in coastal Bulacan. Parts of the province are sinking at a rate of almost 11 centimetres (4.3 inches) a year, the fastest in the Philippines, according to a study led by geologist Mahar Lagmay.
The gradual sinking, known as land subsidence, is an "alarming" phenomenon caused by the overextraction of groundwater, and exacerbated by rising sea levels due to global warming, Lagmay said.
"The rates of subsidence (on Pugad Island) are quite high," he said, adding that while studies specific to the tiny island were lacking, existing data on surrounding areas told the story clearly.
With high tides flooding the streets at least three times a week, the sea already dictates the rhythm of daily life on Pugad.
Class schedules are adjusted daily based on tide charts to prevent children from contracting flood-borne diseases.
Homes have been raised on stilts to keep floors dry, while small business owners use high tables to keep their wares above murky water that can rise to 1.5 metres (five feet) on heavy flooding days.
- 'Back to normal' impossible -
Sea levels across the Philippines are already rising three times faster than the global average of 3.6 millimetres per year, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has said this could accelerate to 13 millimetres annually.
"Sea level rise is being experienced in many parts of the country," DENR geosciences chief Karlo Queano told AFP, warning coastal areas could disappear without large-scale intervention.
While piecemeal efforts are in place in some areas -- groundwater extraction has been banned in parts of Bulacan since 2004 -- a broad national strategy has yet to take shape.
A government study on the path forward was not expected until 2028, Queano said.
"I think it's already impossible for our lives in the village to go back to normal because of climate change," said Pugad village captain Jaime Gregorio.
Gregorio said roads were being raised every three years to keep the community viable, but leadership changes meant the implementation of long-term flood mitigation projects was rarely consistent.
For Tamayo, who has lived on the island her whole life, the constant adjustment to the tide has drained what little money her family has scraped together.
Since 2022, they have been elevating their house each year, adding more gravel and concrete to stay above water, so far spending 200,000 pesos ($3,500).
"I love this island so much, this was where my mom and dad raised me... but sometimes, I think about leaving because of the high tide," Tamayo told AFP.
Her boatman husband, Rodolfo Tamayo, insists their livelihood depends on staying.
"We can't go to [other places], we won't have jobs there. We will go hungry."
Lagmay, the geologist, said land subsidence could be reversible with effective government policies governing the over-digging of wells.
But addressing the rise of sea levels was impossible without a concerted effort by the world's highly industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
A UN climate fund established in 2023 to help countries like the Philippines address damage caused by climate change, meanwhile, remains unimplemented.
"We are talking of climate justice here. We have very little contribution to climate change, but we are very affected by its adverse effects," said Elenida Basug, the DENR's climate change service director.
Crouching in the doorway of her flooded home, Tamayo urged the world's polluters to take responsibility for what she and her neighbours were experiencing.
"We are the ones who are suffering... They are rich, so we cannot do anything. Even if we speak against them, who would listen?" Tamayo said.
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