June 28, 2025

Interview: Climate change demands a World War Two-like response from Australia, and the world, according to climate analyst and author, David Spratt

21 minutes

David Spratt (pictured) points to Australia's commitments to other crises to illustrate his arguments on how and why we should respond to the unfolding emergency of climate change.

He wrote about that in an article published recently in The Canberra Times, available now on his website, "Climate Code Red".

The article asks the question: "How bad can climate damage get?" And then answers that "Worse than you imagine".

David, working with the late Phillip Sutton, co-wrote, in 2008, the prescient book "Climate Code Red".

In the final paragraph on his latest piece, David writes: "All of this leads to one conclusion: we are on the edge of a precipice and humanity now needs to throw everything at the climate threat, literally “all hands on deck”. The late Prof. Will Steffen’s call to make climate the primary target of policy and economics is now a survival imperative. The business-as-usual delusion embraced by policymakers that climate is just another issue is laid bare by the 1.5°C time-bomb."

David is an Australian climate policy analyst and advocate, and Research Director at the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration. Spratt co-authored the 2008 book Climate Code Red: The Case for Emergency Action, which argued for urgent, large-scale action to address the climate crisis. He co-authored 2018’s What Lies Beneath: The Understatement of Existential Climate Risk with Ian Dunlop, which called for a reframing of climate science within an existential risk management framework. His work explores climate threats and human security, risk methods, and the need for restorative action.

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By Robert McLean