Australia coastal living at risk

BBC News

About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas

Australia may have to force people to evacuate coastal areas as rising sea levels threaten thousands of homes, an official report has warned.

The National Sea Change Taskforce said urgent action was needed to protect Australia's coast from seas expected to rise more than 80cm (31 inches).

It said the government should introduce laws to ban further coastal living and development.

The parliamentary report noted that 80% of Australians live in coastal areas.

Coastal identity

The report urges authorities to consider "the possibility of a government instrument that prohibits continued occupation of the land or future building development on the property due to sea hazard".

There were almost 50 recommendations in the report, ranging from a national coastline plan and greater co-operation between different authorities to a revised building code to cope with storm surges and soil erosion.

It does not say the government should force people to move inland but proposes an independent group look into whether the government could - and should - do that.

Australia's major cities are all in coastal areas, as well as the homes of some six million people outside the main population centres, according to the report, which was issued late on Monday after 18 months of study.

"The committee agrees that this is an issue of national importance and that the time to act is now," the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts wrote.

Alan Stokes, the task force's executive director, said banning development in certain areas is necessary if the government wants to prevent a major loss of life in the event of natural disasters such as tsunamis.

"There's no doubt Australia will remain and continue to be a coastal community," he said.

"But we may have to be a bit more considerate about which parts of the coast we develop further and which ones we don't," he added.

Last week the government reintroduced carbon trading legislation which was rejected in August and is among a package of bills aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25% by 2020.