STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms SPENDER (Wentworth) (13:36): Two weeks ago, the UN confirmed what we agreed only a decade ago to avoid. We're going to overshoot the 1.5 degrees target. It's now inevitable.

It came just a week after the consequences of that failure were made concrete in the harrowing avalanche of mud in Nepal. More than 1,300 are confirmed dead. More than 5,000 are still missing, 35 of them Australians.

To the families grieving, we see you, and this parliament grieves with you. Nepal has asked the UN Loss and Damage Fund for $20 million. That's $20 million against a $5 billion rebuild cost, for a country whose entire annual output is about $45 billion.

The costs of climate change are growing, and they are not growing in a straight line, which means we must do three things at once: rebuild from disaster, build resilience and invest in mitigation. We are not doing enough of any of these. A loss and damage fund is akin to making the minimum payment on a credit card, while the balance compounds at a punishing rate.

One day the balance falls due, and, in Nepal, part of it just did. We owe a debt to the people of Nepal. They are responsible for one-tenth of global emissions, but their mountains are warming nearly 50 per cent faster than average.

A debt is not discharged by sympathy. We owe them action.