AUSTRALIA 2001-2010: A DECADE OF CLIMATE EXTREMES AND PUBLIC POLICY RESPONSES

Australia is the driest inhabited continent and is well known for extreme droughts and floods in the twentieth century. At the start of the twenty-first century, from 2001 to 2009, the southeast portion of the continent suffered from the most severe drought on record with runoff reductions exceeding 300-year return intervals in portions of the Murray – Darling basin, the continent’s only major river system and the nation’s food bowl.

The federal and state governments pursued numerous policy initiatives to minimize the drought’s environmental and social impacts. Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane all implemented water conservation targets of approximately 150 liters per person per day, a figure well below U.S. urban usage even in the most serious droughts. All of these major cities committed billions of dollars to constructing very large desalination plants (up to 200 GL/year) to provide future drought proof water supplies. Intra and interstate water markets were established to allow the power of markets to alleviate economic impacts. In 2007 and 2008 the states agreed to create a new federal water entity, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), with significant federal powers to oversee water in the basin. In late 2010, the MDBA released a draft water management proposal calling for federal acquisition through willing-seller purchases of up to 40% of all water licenses. The federal government also committed $3B to purchases of environmental water.

In late 2010 and early 2011 a series of very destructive storms ended the drought. Storages rebounded significantly. Queensland was substantially impacted with seventy towns and 200,000 people affected and at least 35 deaths. A major dam upstream of Brisbane was forced to make unplanned water releases, inundating a significant part of the city. Victoria was also hit by record floods.

These extreme events lead to a series of very important questions that have direct bearing on responses in the U.S. to severe droughts and floods: For example, what caused the drought? What public policy responses occurred prior to, during, and after the drought? What policy responses might be implemented in the U.S.? What likely role did climate change play in the drought and ensuing floods?