Axe over controversial Shenhua coal mine in New England
China’s fossil fuel transformation places axe over controversial Shenhua coal mine in New England, The Age, March 29, 2016 Heath Aston Political reporter China Shenhua, which owns the contentious Shenhua-Watermark project on the NSW Liverpool Plains, has warned of plunging demand for fossil fuels and slashed its global budget for investing in new coal projects.
The company has surprised analysts with the depth of its pessimism on the coal market in its annual report released on Good Friday.
The proposed mine at Gunnedah is now almost certainly “commercially unviable”, according to Tim Buckley, Australasian director of the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and it is only a question of whether the Chinese government proceeds to development in an attempt to “save face”, he said.
“I have no doubt the project doesn’t make any commercial sense unless the coal price doubles,” he said.
There is gathering speculation the Turnbull government is working on a political solution whereby the Baird Government would return Shenhua’s original $300 million exploration licence and allow the company to retreat with dignity……
NSW Greens’ mining and agriculture spokesperson Jeremy Buckingham said Mr Joyce should negotiate a “swift and fair exit” for Shenhua.
“Even the world’s biggest coal miner has recognised that there is no need for new coal and it’s up to Barnaby Joyce to create certainty for the farmers of the Liverpool Plains by negotiating an exit for Shenhua,” he said.
“It’s unacceptable for this coal mine proposal to hang over the Liverpool Plains, causing uncertainty and stress, and hindering investment in agriculture.” http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/chinas-fossil-fuel-transformation-places-axe-over-controversial-shenhua-coal-mine-in-new-england-20160329-gnt98y.html
The politically toxic proposed coal mine at the centre of the election battle between Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and Tony Windsor appears doomed after its Chinese owner outlined an accelerated transformation plan away from mining into cleaner electricity generation.
Further revelations on the scope of cuts to CSIRO climate research
New CSIRO document reveals scale of planned cuts to climate programs, The Age March 23, 2016 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald One of CSIRO’s main climate science units planned to slash four out of five researchers, all but eliminating its monitoring and climate modelling research, a new document reveals.
The cuts are contained in an analysis for the Oceans & Atmosphere division, dated January 25, 2016. CSIRO handed over the document to the Senate committee investigating plans to slash 350 staff overall, and it has been made public on the Senate’s website.
Doubts over the rationale and planning of the cuts flared on Tuesday in another CSIRO section facing deep job losses, with many Land & Water staff walking out of a meeting with chief executive Larry Marshall.
Scientists, though, have told the Senate committee investigating the CSIRO that adaptation work would be much harder to do unless Australia is able to predict the rate of change and where its impacts will hit the hardest.
The document shows the net reduction in full-time staff in the O&A division would save just $6.5 million a year. That calculation was based on $8.8 million in salaries and $2.7 million in lower operating costs, with the gains set against $5 million in lost revenue.
“It’s a pretty bad deal – you cut about 110 staff all together and you recover almost nothing,” one senior scientist told Fairfax Media. “You also ruin the reputation [of CSIRO] and the lives” of the staff let go.
Dr Marshall is expected to be grilled on the document when he fronts the Senate committee, now planned for April 7. http://www.theage.com.au/environment/new-csiro-document-reveals-scale-of-planned-cuts-to-climate-programs-20160322-gnodtg.html
Record heat: renewable energy key to slowing climate changge
Record-breaking autumn temperatures points to a hotter future, environmentalists warn http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-20/hot-autumn-weather-across-australia-may-have-consequences/7261312?section=environmentRecord-breaking hot weather across Australia in autumn could have long-ranging consequences, the Climate Council says, with warmer conditions set to continue.
Key points:
- March temperatures in south-eastern Australia up by 12C, report says
- Perth recently had more 40-degree days than ever before
- Environmentalists say high temperatures point to human-driven climate change
In the first week of March, temperatures in parts of south-eastern Australia were 12 degrees Celsius warmer than average, the report titled The Heat Marches On said.
The Climate Council’s Tim Flannery said El Nino weather patterns had caused Australia to heat up, and that hotter conditions were expected in future.
“As long as El Nino persists, we will see these very hot conditions,” he said.
“Once El Nino fades, we will go back to less extreme conditions.
“But the next El Nino will bring a higher spike again, because the background level of greenhouse gases that is capturing ever more heat just continues to grow.”
Mr Flannery said the heat was having consequences around the world.
“The fact that we have seen record high temperatures over the Arctic ocean through this winter … means that we are looking towards a summer with potentially very low ice volumes,” he said.
“That will have a global impact. These warm conditions throughout the earth now are really having an impact on humanity in so many ways.
“Droughts, enhanced fire conditions, changed rainfall patterns, shrinking glaciers. We are now living in a new climate.”
Renewable energy is key: environmentalists
The Climate Council report said Perth had suffered through more 40-degree days in 2015-2016 than ever before, and Sydney recorded 39 consecutive days over 26C this year.
The first nine days of March in Victoria were about 10C above average, the report said, and Echuca sweated through eight days in a row above 38C. Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said extreme heat had a big impact.”As it gets hotter, fire risk is exacerbated. We saw that in Tasmania with the extreme fire in the World Heritage Area,” she said.
The report said the unusually high temperatures pointed to human-driven climate change.
Ms McKenzie said extreme conditions would continue unless Australia moved away from fossil fuels and towards more renewable energy.
“We have moved from a period of climate change concern where scientists have been warning us about the consequences of climate change, to now an era of climate change consequences,” Ms McKenzie said.
“We are seeing extreme heat, hot days; heatwaves are longer, they are hotter, they are happening more often. We will see that accelerate if we don’t do anything more.”
On the sidelines of last year’s climate talks in Paris where leaders struck a deal to slow the pace of global warming to well below 2C, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said fossil fuels still had a future in Australia.
Ms Bishop said long-term change would come through new energy technologies.
Turnbull govt missing the chance for Australia to lead on climate change action
Malcolm Turnbull risks Australia’s economy with inaction on climate change, Guardian
Jonathon Porritt, 15 Mar 16
He may not want to confront climate-change deniers in his party, but it’s time for the prime minister to seize the low-carbon agenda for the opportunity it is
Even for a sympathetic observer from the UK, the politics of climate change in Australia is, to say the least, vexatious. But it’s now entering a more critical phase than ever before. The mismatch between the conclusions of the Paris agreement in December last year and the failure of Australia’s political establishment to understand what’s going on “out there in the rest of the world” is putting Australia’s entire economy at risk.
When the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, wrested the prime ministership from Tony Abbott in September last year, the international climate community breathed a deep sigh of relief. With the former Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, Abbott was seen as the most egregiously pig-headed climate-change denier in western world had ever thrown up. By contrast, Turnbull had done OK on climate change as a previous leader of the Liberal party, so it was assumed he would do a lot better second time round.
Nothing could be further from the truth. As I discovered on my latest visit, Turnbull has been utterly pusillanimous in pursuing any kind of progressive climate agenda. As part of his “oil on troubled waters” strategy, he apparently decided not to take on Abbott’s climate-denying guerilla fighters, and has offered zero leadership to Australia’s confused and polarised citizenry either before or after Paris.
For instance, he stood idly by as Australia’s world-renowned science agency, the CSIRO, announced it would cut 80% of its climate scientists, effectively ending Australia’s climate research program.
No surprise then that the New South Wales Liberals recently passed a motion, with the support of more than 70% of delegates, calling on the federal government to hold public debates between scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and independent climate scientists. Basically, they are still refusing to accept that the science of climate change is settled, and are fighting an obstinate rearguard action to keep mining and burning as much coal and gas as possible.
You can see why Turnbull might be a bit nervous about confronting such a monumentally ignorant faction in his party. And he may even be reassured that such deniers still hang on elsewhere in the world. ……..
What he needs to know is that it’s all so much worse (and moving so much faster) than anyone imagined even five years ago. Instead of having decades to do what needs to be done to set the global economy on a genuinely low-carbon trajectory (as in net zero emissions by 2050, which is what Turnbull’s government signed up to in Paris), we now have little more than a decade.
Australia is uniquely vulnerable in this respect. The damage that will be done to the Australian economy as the world decarbonises at speed, leaving billions of dollars stranded in fossil-fuel assets that can no longer be developed, is almost impossible to imagine. And to rub salt into that already inflamed wound, there are few countries that will suffer more from rising average temperatures (as in forest fires, increasingly inhospitable cities, and drought-devastated rural economies) and rising sea levels……..
as it happens, not only is Australia uniquely vulnerable to the consequences of runaway climate change, it’s also extraordinarily well-placed to navigate its way through to the kind of ultra-low-carbon prosperity on which the destiny of all nations now depends.
In January a blockbuster report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) identified Australia as one of the most significant beneficiaries of this kind of accelerated shift to renewables by 2030, providing significant gains in GDP (up 1.7%) and employment, as well as socioeconomic and other environmental benefits. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/15/malcolm-turnbull-risks-australias-economy-with-inaction-on-climate-change
Mary Robinson criticises Australia’s cuts to CSIRO climate research
Mary Robinson joins chorus against CSIRO cuts, says climate science ‘imperative, not luxury’ By Sara Phillips, ABC News, 16 Mar 16 Former president of Ireland Mary Robinson criticised the proposed cuts to CSIRO climate science in a speech made last night at the University of Melbourne’s Sustainable Society Institute.
Key points:
- Mary Robinson says CSIRO cuts ‘wrong message to be sending at the moment’
- Says research ‘an investment … not a luxury’
- Joins growing number of international voices to criticise the cuts
The highly-decorated former politician was last year a United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change.
She was a key player in brokering the global agreement on climate change reached in Paris in December.
But on Tuesday night she said she was concerned about proposed cuts to long-running climate science programs.
CSIRO chief Larry Marshall announced structural changes to Australia’s national science agency in February, paring back efforts to observe and measure climate change and instead emphasise research into how Australia should prepare for it.
Approximately 350 climate science jobs are expected to be affected.
The cuts were condemned around the world, with an open letter from nearly 3,000 scientists from around the world calling on Dr Marshall to reconsider his plans.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change co-chair and even the World Meteorological Organisation also spoke up against the proposed cuts.
‘I urge Australia to continue to provide leadership’
Ms Robinson, a career diplomat, was forthright in adding her voice to the chorus.
“I think it’s the wrong message at the moment. We need the research at all levels and more of it,” she said.
“Research is an investment in our shared future. It’s not a luxury……….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-16/climate-change-research-‘imperative’-not-‘luxury’-mary-robinson/7249596?section=environment
Australia’s Liberal Party Wants National Debates on whether or not Climate Change is happening!
NSW Liberals call for national debates on climate change science
The NSW Liberals have formally called on the Turnbull government to conduct public debates about climate change – including as to whether the science is settled – in a stark reminder of the deep divisions within the party over the issue.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-liberals-call-for-national-debates-on-climate-change-science-20160307-gnd3zn.html
The Sorry History of the Liberal Party’s Religious Conversion to Climate Denialism
Lest anyone assume that this is an issue only for the Liberals, it should be noted that the Australian Labor Party’s climate policies have hardly been consistent, veering from indifference under Paul Keating, to grave moral challenge under Rudd, and finally the “art of the possible” under Julia Gillard. Meanwhile, the arcane accounting rules around the Kyoto Protocol have allowed both Labor and Liberal governments to draw a veil over the true progress.
As economist Ross Garnaut warned in 2008, it may be that the problem is simply too wicked for our democratic system to cope.
How climate denial gained a foothold in the Liberal Party, and why it still won’t go away, The Conversation, Marc Hudson, March 10, 2016 It seems the Liberal Party is still having trouble letting go of climate denial, judging by the New South Wales branch’s demand that the Turnbull government arrange a series of public debates on climate science.
Leaving aside the fact that this kind of town hall debate would only entrench opposing viewpoints rather than making scientific headway (a task best left to peer-reviewed journals), it is not the only recent example of Liberal Party members seeking to stoke doubts over the reality of climate change.
Last September, Liberal National Party senator Ian Macdonald told the federal parliament that Australia’s children have been “brainwashed” about human-induced climate change, which he described as “a fad or a farce or a hoax” and “farcical and fanciful”.
Two months earlier, Macdonald’s fellow LNP MP George Christensen attended the Heartland Institute’s climate sceptic conference. There he described climate concerns as “hysteria” and the stuff of science fiction.
And a month before that, rural Liberals called for a parliamentary inquiry into climate science, while urging Australia not to sign any binding agreement at December’s Paris climate talks.
This pervasive climate scepticism might make it look like this is a longstanding position within the Liberal Party. But history tells rather a different story.
The forgotten history of Liberal climate positions
Dangerous global warming will happen sooner than thought
Dangerous global warming will happen sooner than thought – study, Guardian, Joshua Robertson, 10 Mar 16 Australian researchers say a global tracker monitoring energy use per person points to 2C warming by 2030. The world is on track to reach dangerous levels of global warming much sooner than expected, according to new Australian research that highlights the alarming implications of rising energy demand.
University of Queensland and Griffith University researchers have developed a “global energy tracker” which predicts average world temperatures could climb 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2020.
That forecast, based on new modelling using long-term average projections on economic growth, population growth and energy use per person, points to a 2C rise by 2030.
The UN conference on climate change in Paris last year agreed to a 1.5C rise as the preferred limit to protect vulnerable island states, and a 2C rise as the absolute limit.
The new modelling is the brainchild of Ben Hankamer from UQ’s institute for molecular bioscience and Liam Wagner from Griffith University’s department of accounting, finance and economics, whose work was published in the journal Plos One on Thursday.
It is the first model to include energy use per person – which has more than doubled since 1950 – alongside economic and population growth as a way of predicting carbon emissions and corresponding temperature increases.
The researchers said the earlier than expected advance of global warming revealed by their modelling added a newfound urgency to the switch from fossil fuels to renewables.
Hankamer said: “The more the economy grows, the more energy you use … the conclusion really is that economists and environmentalists are on the same side and have both come to the same conclusion: we’ve got to act now and we don’t have much time.”……..
The researchers suggested switching $500bn in subsidies for fossil fuels worldwide to renewables as a “cost neutral” way to fast-track the energy transition.
Wagner said pulling the rug from out under the fossil fuels industry was a move of “creative destruction” and “more a political issue rather than an economic issue”…….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/10/dangerous-global-warming-will-happen-sooner-than-thought-study
Government trashing Australia’s international reputation, with climate study cuts to CSIRO
“our whole reputation is at risk … it’s our international reputation in delivering results”.
A petition signed by 150 scientists attending the conference has called on the Federal Government to reconsider the organisation’s restructure.
Global spotlight on CSIRO cuts as work culture turns toxic, inquiry hears , ABC News, 7 Mar 16 Australia’s top marine scientists are warning that the country’s international scientific standing will be damaged by the CSIRO’s climate restructure.
About 350 jobs nationally are expected to go by mid 2017, including positions from the Oceans and Atmosphere Unit and 100 from land and water research.
A total of 191 staff work in the Oceans and Atmosphere division in Tasmania.
Scientific leaders from the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) are giving evidence before the Senate’s Select Committee into Scrutiny of Government Budget Measures in Hobart. Continue reading
Australia needs to ‘get very serious’ about dealing with heatwaves
Australia underprepared to deal with ‘killer heat’, Climate Council report says Australia is underprepared to deal with the escalating problem of extreme “killer” heatwaves and a “whole of society approach” is needed to deal with the problem, a Climate Council report says. ABC News, 3 Mar 16
- The 2009 heatwave killed over 370 people
- Heatwaves have killed more people than fires, cyclones, floods
- Cardiac arrests triple during heatwaves
- Whole of society approach needed to make changes
There were more than 370 deaths during the heatwave of 2009 and climate forecasts indicate there will be longer, hotter and more intense heatwaves in future, according to The Silent Killer: Climate change and the impact of extreme heat.
The number of record hot days in Australia has doubled in the past 50 years.
Heatwaves have killed more Australians than any other natural hazard and have caused more deaths since 1890 than bushfires, cyclones, earthquakes, floods and severe storms combined, the report said.
The heat places “a dramatic demand” on public facilities such as hospitals and the system is so stretched there is no capacity to increase services.
In the 2009 heatwave, emergency callouts jumped by 46 per cent and there was a tripling of cardiac arrests.
“Our argument is no-one should die from heat in Australia,” said Dr Liz Hanna, the report’s author. We know it’s hot, we know when it’s coming, we know quite a lot about what’s needed. “What we need to do is just make this happen.”
Australia needs to ‘get very serious’ about dealing with heatwaves Dr Hanna said there needs to be greater flexibility in how hospitals operate, and extra capacity in the emergency services.”It’s not only boosting capacity to respond to what we’ve had, we need to plan to boost our capacity for what’s yet to come because the worst hasn’t really happened yet,” she said………http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-02/australia-underprepared-to-deal-with-killer-heat-report-says/7212408
Australian Conservation Foundation monitors Australia’s biggest polluters
Australia’s 10 biggest climate polluters 2016 http://apo.org.au/resource/australias-10-biggest-climate-polluters-2016 Australian Conservation Foundation 29 February 2016 Australia’s 10 biggest polluters – all energy and mining companies – continue to rely on last century’s fuels to generate energy and conduct their businesses.
Foreword
In the 12 months since the Australian Conservation Foundation’s first report on Australia’s 10 biggest climate polluting companies, energy giant AGL has gone from #3 to #1 and miner Glencore has entered the list for the first time.
Despite what the federal government tells Australians, the amount of climate pollution Australia pumps into the sky is rising.
And Australia’s 10 biggest polluters – all energy and mining companies – continue to rely on last century’s fuels to generate energy and conduct their businesses.
This report, based on the very latest available data, describes each company, explains how the company creates climate pollution and summarises what each says on the public record about climate change.
These 10 companies are responsible for the equivalent of nearly a third of Australia’s climate pollution. Together, they are responsible for pouring more climate pollution into the atmosphere than Switzerland, Ireland, and Denmark combined.
And government policies encourage them to keep doing what they’ve been doing for decades. Meanwhile, the world is changing.
In Paris in December last year, 195 countries agreed to keep “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
To achieve this goal all countries have to work hard to cut climate pollution.
But in 2014-15 Australia’s climate pollution increased by 1.3 per cent. That’s more than seven million additional tonnes of planet-warming pollution pumped into our skies in just one year.
Why? In axing the carbon price, the government removed the one policy Australia had to reduce climate pollution from the energy sector, leaving electricity generators – and the rest of us – largely reliant on coal for our power.
The truth is the energy sector is crying out for government leadership to help the industry make the transition to a zero-pollution future.
At an energy forum hosted by ACF last year representatives of energy companies, superannuation funds, financial services companies and investors agreed the early closure of coal-fired power stations was inevitable and the federal government needed to manage this transition.
AGL’s chief executive Andrew Vesey has called on the federal government to develop a “clear and equitable policy” to close the least efficient power stations. “It is important that older, less efficient and reliable power stations are removed from Australia’s energy mix,” Mr Vesey said. “Decarbonisation and modernisation of Australia’s electricity system are important goals requiring effective policy.”
The calls are there – from the energy companies, investors, environmentalists and infrastructure experts. Now, the government must take the lead.
ACF urges the federal government to commit to a phased closure of Australia’s coal-fired power stations. This means starting with the dirtiest and least efficient stations, helping affected workers and communities with the transition and drawing up comprehensive plans to clean up and rehabilitate old mine sites and power stations.
The big polluters identified in this report own some of the world’s dirtiest coal-fired power stations. Every day these dirty power stations are spewing out pollution. Every day they are making climate change worse.
Australians already live with the impacts of climate change. Last year was the world’s hottest recorded year, the 39th consecutive year of above average temperatures. This has fuelled droughts, bushfires, heatwaves and other extreme weather events across the country. This summer ancient parts of Tasmania’s alpine World Heritage wilderness were burnt by bushfires for the first time in a thousand years. These big polluting companies are making this situation worse every day.
It’s time for Australia to get out of last century’s energy sources and leap into a brighter future powered by clean energy.
Australia at risk of missing its 2020 renewable energy target
Some continue to blame the sluggish investment on the uncertainty created by then Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s ferocious push across 2014 and 2015 to cut the renewable energy target. Last year the government and Labor struck a deal to lower the target.
In recent times there have been some positive signs of movement.. This month energy giant AGL launched an investment fund aimed at delivering 1000 megawatts worth of renewable energy, while Origin Energy head Grant King was quoted saying his company was preparing to back new projects………
Australia risks missing clean power goals, with households to pick up the bill, SMH, February 28, 2016 Tom Arup Environment editor, The Age Australia risks not hitting its 2020 renewable energy target with analysts now forecasting that interim goals will be missed – a situation that will trigger penalties that households will have to pay.
Many in the energy industry agree that this year will be “make or break” for achieving the end-of-decade target, which aims to deliver about 23 per cent of Australia’s electricity from clean technologies such as wind and solar.
“This year is critical” said Kane Thornton, who heads the Clean Energy Council……….. Continue reading
Australian govt’s new fossil fuel “growth centre” !
Coalition digs deeper into fossil fuels with new “growth centre” http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/coalition-digs-deeper-into-fossil-fuels-with-new-growth-centre-82395 By Sophie Vorrath on 25 February 2016
Part of the government’s $248 million Industry Growth Centres Initiative, the Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Growth Centre was unveiled on Wednesday by federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg and minister for innovation and industry, Christopher Pyne. The ministers said they hoped the facility – in which the Turnbull government is investing $15.4 million over four years – would help position Australia’s energy and resources sector for the next wave of investment.
It will be chaired by long-time oil and gas industry executive, Ken Fitzpatrick, with a board and management team drawn from across the oil, gas, coal seam gas, coal and uranium industries.
According to the website, the growth centre’s mission is to reduce industry costs, direct research to industry needs, improve work skills, facilitate partnerships and reduce regulatory burdens.
It will also have a particular focus on improving knowledge and techniques needed to unlock Australia’s marginal gas resources like coal-seam gas – a controversial and high-cost field of exploration and production that AGL Energy recently ruled out of its repertoire to focus, instead, on the “evolution” of the energy industry.
Pyne says the new growth centre – which will be known as National Energy Resources Australia, or NERA – will work closely with researchers from universities and the newly streamlined CSIRO, the irony of which was not lost on critics of the scheme.
“Pouring millions of dollars into research for the fossil fuel industry adds insult to injury for the CSIRO climate scientists who are set to lose their jobs under Malcolm Turnbull and his government’s watch,” said Greens energy spokesman Adam Bandt on Thursday.
“Not only is the Liberal government allowing the CSIRO to cut climate science, it’s making the scientists who don’t lose their job try to breathe life into the dying fossil fuel industries.
“(It) is pouring millions of dollars into a big hole in the ground, which is directly at odds with what the science tells us we must do,” Bandt said.
The Australian Conservation Foundation said the establishment of NERA amounted to another multi-million dollar subsidy to big polluting energy companies. “This money would be better spent extending the funding of the Australian Climate Change Science Program which is due to expire in June this year,” said ACF climate program manager Victoria McKenzie-McHarg.
“The world has changed since the Paris agreement. This budget the government should focus on supporting the science, technology and clean energy innovation of the future, not keep subsidising pollution.”
“Australia’s energy and resources sectors make a vital contribution to the Australian economy,” said Frydenberg in a statement on Thursday. “During this challenging time, the Growth Centre will drive collaboration and innovation, and direct research to industry needs, ultimately improving productivity to ensure Australia remains globally competitive.”
Australia breaches Paris climate agreement, damages economy, by cutting CSIRO climate modelling
CSIRO climate cuts will breach Paris agreement and cost economy – report
Cuts to climate modelling and measuring research contradict Australia’s pledge to strengthen commitments to climate science, the Climate Council says, Guardian Michael Slezak 21 Feb 16 Cuts to the CSIRO’s climate modelling and measuring research will breach Australia’s obligations under the recent Paris agreement and will result in huge costs to the economy, a report by Australia’s Climate Council has found.
The report adds to a chorus of eminent bodies and individuals criticising the move, which the CSIRO made after almost no consultation with its own scientists or other research institutions.
Earlier in the month it was revealed CSIRO would be cutting up to 350 staff from climate research programs over two years. Over the following weeks, the organisation’s chief executive Larry Marshallexplained that would result in a loss of about 50% of the staff working in climate modelling and measuring.
In a report titled “Flying Blind: Navigating Climate Change without the CSIRO,” the Climate Council said governments and businesses relied on the CSIRO’s climate modelling and measuring work to make billion-dollar decisions and if the cuts went ahead, would be relying on “guesswork”.
The report notes Australia and the rest of the world agreed to strengthen commitments to climate science at COP21 in Paris in December. “The recently announced cuts to climate science mean that Australia has already reneged on one of its obligations under the Paris commitments,” it concludes.
It cites a number of examples of decisions and industries that have relied on the modelling and measuring performed by the CSIRO:………
An open letter signed by more than 2800 scientists raised similar concerns. In response to the chorus of criticisms, Marshall initially said the response was more like religion than science, and compared climate scientists to oil lobbyists in the 1970s…….
It was revealed in Senate estimates that CSIRO executives did not consult with organisations like the Bureau of Meteorology who depend on CSIRO modelling until 24 hours before the cuts were made public.
Even Ken Lee, the director of the division that would take the brunt of the cuts was only told about the cuts four days before they were announced.
The Climate Council, which produced the new report, is a crowd-funded body that seeks to provide authoritative information on climate change to the community. It was created after the Abbott government cut the Climate Commission when it took government in 2013, and seeks to perform the same job. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/22/csiro-climate-cuts-will-breach-paris-agreement-and-cost-economy-report
Australian govt’s wrong decision to dump CSIRO climate modelling – Dr John Church
Renowned CSIRO scientist Dr John Church speaks out against decision to dump climate modelling, ABC News 19 Feb 16 By Angela Ross One of the CSIRO’s most respected scientists, Dr John Church, has spoken out against the body’s decision to scrap its climate modelling program.
A petition signed by 2,800 international scientists from more than 60 countries expressed outrage about the decision to cut two research programs under the oceans and atmosphere business unit.
“The decision to decimate a vibrant and world-leading research program shows a lack of insight and a misunderstanding of the importance of the depth and significance of Australia’s contributions to global and regional climate research,” it read……..
Dr Church argued there was no point collecting data if scientists were not there to analyse the results.
“If Australia pulls out of key activities in the southern hemisphere then that will leave significant gaps, we will be losing partnerships with key agencies all around the world,” he said……..
The union representing Dr Church and his colleagues, the CSIRO Staff Association, has lodged a dispute with the Fair Work Commission but no date has been set. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-19/award-winning-scientist-condemns-csiro-job-cuts/7184410
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