The Daily Telegraph: Our changing climate brings flood

THE reluctance of our politicians and media to link the devastating floods in Queensland to climate change is nothing but cowardice. The science is in. We must accept the verdict that climate change leads to more frequent and severe disasters.

Denying the link between climate change and extreme weather events such as the Queensland floods is akin to the way the tobacco companies denied the link between smoking cigarettes and cancer.

Just as smoking increases the risk of cancer, emitting carbon changes our climate and increases the risk of extreme weather.

The connection between flood and climate change was put well by home-grown climate scientist David Karoly, who said recently that Australia has been known for more than 100 years as a land of droughts and flooding rains, but what climate change means is Australia becomes a land of more droughts and worse flooding rains. Speaking to The Australian, Monash University's Professor Neville Nicholls said you'd have to be a brave person to say climate change was not having some sort of effect.

Dozens of scientific studies by governments and the insurance industry released over the last decade, including the Queensland Government's inland flooding study released last November, accept the link.

The floods have affected an area the size of Germany and France combined. And Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says the reconstruction effort facing the state is one of post-war proportions. The damage is currently estimated at a whopping $5 billion and the economic impact of the disaster is expected to wipe one whole point off GDP.

As flood victims come to terms with their losses and get on with rebuilding their lives with savings, government assistance and charity, I'd like to know how much money the Australian coal industry will chip in?

Given that they are a major driver of climate change, they should be the ones forking out money to help affected Australians recover. Will they pay the increased premiums and cover rises in excesses as everyone's insurance costs rise?

Eventually tobacco companies were compelled to pay damages to the victims of their harmful product. So too should the coal industry. They have contributed massively to the cumulative carbon emissions and must finance rebuilding Queensland.

Queensland is the world's largest exporter of seaborne coal. As the floods shut down the state's supply chain, global coal prices shot up by 20 per cent. This rise clearly demonstrates the scale of Australia's contribution to the coal market and to climate changes.

The industry should also be held accountable for the impacts of mine heavy metals the waterlogged mines have injected into floodwaters.

While there is no legal precedent or legislation that obliges the coal industry to help pay for the damage it is fuelling through climate change, they have a moral obligation to make sizeable donations to the recovery.

Failure to do so will not only demonstrate contempt for Australia's fragile climate, but contempt for the flood victims.

*Matthew Wright is the Environment Minister's Young Environmentalist of the Year 2010