Australian authorities yesterday warned of severe fire danger in densely populated areas this weekend, declaring a state of emergency in the capital, Canberra, as soaring temperatures and strong winds whipped up huge, unpredictable blazes.
With temperatures surpassing 40°C, emergency officials urged people to prepare for fires in parts of the southeast, including hundreds of kilometers of coast south of Sydney that have already been badly hit in months of blazes.
“Tomorrow will be the peak of the heatwave in NSW [New South Wales], with some areas expected to reach extreme heat wave conditions,” the NSW Rural Fire Service said on Facebook.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The bushfires have killed 33 people and an estimated 1 billion animals since September last year. About 2,500 homes have been destroyed as more than 11.7 million hectares have been razed.
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the area’s first state of emergency since fatal wildfires in 2003 indicated the danger this weekend.
Four people were killed and almost 500 homes destroyed in the 2003 bushfire season.
Officials said that an out-of-control fire in the south, on the doorstep of Canberra, had grown to 185km2, almost 8 percent of the territory’s area.
“This fire may become very unpredictable. It may become uncontrollable,” Barr said. “The combination of extreme heat, wind and a dry landscape will place suburbs in Canberra’s south at risk.”
The state of emergency is to run for 72 hours, giving authorities greater powers to order evacuations, close roads and take control of property.
Victoria state, which adjoins NSW and the ACT, is also expected to experience a heat wave over the weekend.
Separately yesterday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under fire for his climate policies amid the devastating bushfire season, announced a A$2 billion (US$1.34 billion) energy deal with NSW that aims to reduce emissions and lower power bills.
The federal government is to provide up to A$1 billion for clean energy initiatives, jointly underwrite investment in two new interstate transmission links to bolster grid stability and support new generation projects in the country’s most populous state.
In return, the state government committed to facilitating investment into gas supply in the east coast market and ensuring coal supplies to its biggest power plant until 2042.
The deal might buy Morrison some breathing space from the backlash over the bushfires, which scientists have warned are likely to become more extreme as a result of climate change.
Still, industry analysts saw the package as a costly way to tackle the issue that could serve to crowd out private investment.
“Doing negotiated bilateral deals between governments is a very strange way to run an energy market,” said Tony Wood, energy program director at the Grattan Institute think tank.
“This is what you do when you can’t, or you’ve chosen not to, have a policy to steer the industry toward lower emissions in an efficient way,” Wood added.
Morrison’s center-right government has steadfastly refused to introduce a carbon pricing mechanism, a step many in the industry see as the lowest-cost way to bring about the transition to cleaner energy.
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