Most Australian chief executives believe climate crisis a threat to business

By Ben Butler

[…]

Global accounting firm PwC’s annual survey of CEOs shows bosses are preparing to cut jobs and don’t think Australian business and government is doing enough to deal with global heating – a dismal picture that is set to get worse once the effects of the past month’s deadly bushfires take hold.

[…]

Economists expect the damage to industries including tourism, agriculture and retail from the unprecedented fires to carve up to 0.2 percentage points from Australia’s already anaemic growth figures.

[…]

Experts say the damage to the tourism sector is likely to top $1bn, and there is little likelihood that sales figures will show that Christmas revived a retail sector struggling to hold on as consumers who haven’t enjoyed a pay rise for years keep their wallets firmly shut.

[…]

Economists are pessimistic about the chances of an improvement any time soon, with Deloitte Access Economics predicting GDP growth will remain stuck at 2% for the rest of the financial year – well short of the 2.75% predicted by the Morrison government at the last federal budget and less even than the 2.25% estimate delivered in December.

[…]