SYDNEY: Rising oceans and flooding caused by climate change will threaten the homes and livelihoods of more than a million Australians by 2050, while deaths from heat-related illness will soar, a landmark report warned on Monday ahead of Canberra’s release of emission reduction targets this week.

The long-awaited national climate risk assessment found that rising temperatures will have “cascading, compounding, concurrent” impacts on life in Australia, home to more than 27 million people.

“We are living climate change now. It’s no longer a forecast, a projection or prediction — it is a live reality, and it’s too late to avoid any impacts,” Climate Minister Chris Bowen said.

The report, prepared independently for the government, found that 1.5 million people living in coastal areas will be at risk of sea level rise and coastal flooding by 2050.

By 2090, about three million people will be at risk from rising oceans. Sea level rises pose a significant threat to homes, livelihoods, and cultural connections — particularly in locations such as the Torres Strait Islands, the report said.

Scattered through the warm waters off Australia’s northernmost tip, the sparsely populated islands are threatened by seas rising much faster than the global average.

Joanne Hill, community engagement coordinator at Edith Cowan University and an Indigenous woman, said in response to the report “we cannot delay this emergency response anymore”.

“Our coastal and island communities, particularly the Torres Strait Islands, are at immediate risk of losing their homes, their cultural practices and traditions if we do not do anything now,” Hill said.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2025