Climate change warnings for Australia

CANBERRA, Australia, June 6 (UPI) -- Rising sea levels due to climate change could claim thousands of buildings and vital infrastructure in Australia by the end of the century, a new report claims.

The government-commissioned report addresses a worst-case scenario sea level rise of 3.3 feet within 90 years. It says up to 274,000 homes and more than 8,000 commercial buildings are at risk, as well as 22,000 miles of roads and railway throughout the country, totaling $226 billion in potential losses.

Meantime, the frequency and severity of natural disasters, which now cost Australia around $1 billion annually, will increase due to climate change, the report warns.

"The science tells us we can avoid the worst of these potential impacts if we reduce our carbon pollution -- that is why the government is committed to putting a price on carbon," Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said in a release.

"We can also reduce our vulnerability to impacts we can't avoid by using the best available science to plan timely and cost-effective adaptation measures."

The report comes amid a heated debate surrounding the government's proposed carbon price, or tax. Canberra is expected to announce a carbon tax framework in the next few weeks that would introduce a price on carbon emissions from July 2012, with an emissions trading scheme that could begin from 2015.

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said Sunday that his department's modeling shows that the introduction of a carbon price would boost the nation's renewable energy output six-fold over the next 40 years while gas-fired electricity production would grow by 150 percent, although he didn't indicate what carbon price was used in the forecast.

Experts say the government is likely to propose a carbon price of $20 to $30 per ton.

"Dirty energy will become more expensive and clean energy cheaper under a carbon price, creating the jobs of the future and helping to protect our environment and our economy," Swan wrote in an economic bulletin.

But the Mining Council of Australia contends that based on the 2009 Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme model, the mining sector would have to cut 23,510 jobs in the first 10 years of a carbon price.

Meanwhile, several climate change scientists at Australian National University in Canberra have received death threats.

''Obviously climate research is an emotive issue,'' said Ian Young, vice chancellor of the university.

The West Australian newspaper reports that about 45,000 people attended rallies Sunday in capital cities around Australia in support of putting a price on carbon pollution.