This archive report was first published on 25 August 2020.
On August 25, 2020, a government inquiry in Australia released a 436-page report on the country's devastating 2019-2020 bushfires, which burned over 5.5 million hectares of land and left 26 people dead.
The report, which followed months of consultation and expert testimony, concluded that climate change played a significant role in the conditions that led to the fires and in the unrelenting conditions that supported their spread.
According to the report, climate change as a result of increased greenhouse gas emissions clearly played a role in the conditions that led up to the fires and in the unrelenting conditions that supported the fires to spread.
However, the report also noted that it was impossible to say what precise role climate change had played in producing the complex range of climatic conditions that helped fuel the fires.
The conditions included a years-long drought, high winds, thunderstorms, and low humidity.
While cautioning that climate change does not explain everything that happened, the authors noted that the catastrophic conditions were consistent with what climate change projections have been saying will happen.
The report also warned that extreme fires and fire seasons are likely to become more frequent.
It also rubbished suggestions by those opposing action on climate change that arson and insufficient forest clearance were to blame.
Only 11 of the blazes in New South Wales were found to have been the work of an arsonist deliberately trying to start a bushfire.
Many of the largest fires were caused by lightning strikes in remote areas, the document said.
The report's recommendations largely focused on disaster response and mitigation, including the use of technology to detect remote fires more quickly and increased aerial water-bombing to stop them growing beyond control.
