Climate Change Authority has now lost all of its climate scientists

Climate Change Authority loses last climate scientist, Guardian, Graham Readfearn. 6 July 17 David Karoly says without an expert to replace him, the CCA will struggle to fulfil its legal mandate. Imagine, if you will, a government board to champion Australian arts without any artists on it, or an agency to advise on medical research without any medical researchers.

Or perhaps even, imagine a government authority set up to provide expertise on climate policy without any actual climate scientists.

Well you don’t have to imagine that last one, because that’s what we now have – the government’s Climate Change Authority is now sansclimate scientist.

Prof David Karoly, of the University of Melbourne, has just finished his term on the authority’s board – the only member to stick it out for the full five years.

Karoly says without someone to replace him, the authority will struggle to fulfil its legal mandate. He told me:

I think that it is critically important that at least one member of the Climate Change Authority is an expert and experienced climate change scientist. Such a member is needed to provide information and interpretation on the latest climate change science publications and data………

it [the government] won’t replace Karoly and will instead just rely on the chief scientist, Alan Finkel, to act as a go-between, which of course is much more efficient and logical than actually having a climate scientist right there in the room. That would be silly, right?…….

Under the former Liberal leader Tony Abbott, the government vowed to axe the authority entirely – but couldn’t get enough support in parliament. So instead, if you believe its former insiders, the authority was carefully manipulated and undermined.

As Hamilton put it, the CCA became “dominated by people who want action, but not too much action”. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2017/jul/05/climate-change-authority-loses-last-climate-scientist