New fire risk categories

By Kath Gannaway
TWO new fire risk categories would be introduced, under a submission the Bushfires Royal Commission by Healesville environment groups.
Healesville Environment Watch Inc (HEWI) and Communities Combating Climate Crisis (C4) concluded a detailed submission on the contributing factors of climate change on bushfires with a recommendation that fire risk categories of Very Extreme and Catastrophic be adopted. The submission is signed by Steve Meacher, Maureen Bond, Lorraine Leach, Adrian Francis and David Ward on behalf of HEWI and C4.
They state the new categories are among recommendations contained in the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered to the State Government by researcher Dr Chris Lucas.
The submission called on the commissioners to examine what they said was a substantial body of evidence of a connection between climate change and the extreme weather conditions that exacerbated the intensity and rate of spread of Black Saturday fires.
They said the potential for increased risk of catastrophic bushfires in Victoria had been acknowledged for the past two decades and called on a number of reports and studies which they said had led to a better understanding and wide acceptance of Anthropogenic Global Warming and its links to extreme weather conditions and increased fire danger.
“We ask the Bushfire Royal Commission to acknowledge the very likely connection between Climate Change and the devastation and loss of life in the February fires,” the submission further recommended. Their final recommendation was that the Royal Commission recommend that the State and Federal governments endorse a target of 350ppm atmospheric CO2 to minimise the risk of another Black Saturday.
The full submission can be viewed on line – www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/Have-Your-Say/View-Submissions.aspx – under M for Meacher.