Three observationsI offer three observations concerning the frightening articles about the National Climate Risk Assessment report. First, if the average temperature does increase by 3 degrees in the future, the lives of Australians will almost certainly be far less pleasant than they are today. Beyond that, numerical forecasts should be treated with caution because long run predictive models do not have spectacular track records.Second, whatever the increase in temperature turns out to be, Australia’s efforts to reduce CO2 emissions will be of little avail unless most other nations do likewise. Third, although shocking, the report will be largely forgotten by this time next week when we shift our attention to the likely winner of the AFL grand final.Al Morris, Doncaster

We are the worldThose opposing net zero by 2025 love trotting out their argument that because Australia contributes so little to global warming there is no point in pursuing policies to cut our greenhouse gas emissions. Can they now explain why a large emitter wouldn’t argue that because we do nothing why should they? We, the world, are in this together and can’t afford to empower the large emitters with our weak argument.Peter Randles, Pascoe Vale South

Time to actDare we dream that Labor’s release of their National Climate Risk Assessment is timed to herald non-negotiable and appropriately ambitious climate targets in coming days? Having been floored by Labor’s flagrant endorsement of fossil fuel giants since they were voted in, dare we sit up and dream that wind turbines and much more will soon be beneath our wings?Karen Campbell, Geelong

Wake-up callMinister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen has said we have to be honest (“Horrifying report paints grim picture of Australia’s future”, 15/9). I would be more heartened if he’d said the Albanese government was going to be genuine. This report should have been on the table at the Productivity Roundtable and made public before the environment minister gave Woodside the green light to extract as much gas as it could sell. Sure, it’s alarming, but it’s the wake-up call we had to have. As a nation, and at a personal level, to minimise the stress and suffering from the changes wrought by an overheated atmosphere, we must adopt a bipartisan approach. It’s surely time for the Coalition to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, by giving up their doomed rearguard action in the face of scientific reality.John Mosig, Kew

Exporting the problemNick O’Malley’s article on the National Climate Risk Assessment Report rightly alludes to our need to have a very ambitious 2035 emissions target. This is all good but our 2035 emissions target, whatever it may be, excludes scope 3 or exported emissions. If we include those, researchers at the Climate Analytics think-tank estimate we are responsible for more than 4.5 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, with 80 per cent from exported emissions, which in 2023, amounted to 1.15 billion tonnes. Governments of all persuasions can hide behind a veil of low domestic emissions, as it looks like we are acting responsibly.Phil Labrum, Trentham