Food insecurity one of the greatest climate risks

September 17, 2025

In reporting on the First National Climate Risk Assessment, Julian Cribb highlights a number of threats to Australia from “a wild climate that is increasingly out of control”. Among them is rising food insecurity which will result from “falling crop yields, rising heat stress for livestock, increasing loss of water for irrigation, declining output from forestry and fisheries and biosecurity threats”.

This goes far beyond the worry that our wine industry will have to relocate to Tasmania as the mainland becomes too hot. It raises the question: “Will we even be able to feed ourselves?” Right now, we can feed 60 million in a good year but barely 30 million in a bad year, namely one affected by widespread drought or flood.

We had 27.4 million people at the end of 2024. That year the annual growth was 445,900 people, so we grow by another million every two or so years. That 30 million figure is not too far away, which is the limit of food production in bad years.

And bad years is exactly what will become the norm under climate change. For this reason alone, we should be trying to keep our population from growing beyond 30 million.