Scientist Dr Graeme Pearman knows more than most about the responsibilities and the perils that come with communicating climate change to the highest authorities.
As one of Australia’s highest ranking government scientists, he was asked into the offices of three consecutive Australian Prime Ministers to brief them on climate change.
In the late 1980s, it was Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Then in the 1990s, it was Hawke’s Labor successor Paul Keating. As the decade wore on, it was the conservative Liberal Prime Minister John Howard on the other side of the briefing table.
Pearman was a senior scientist in the Atmospheric Research division of theCSIRO – the nation’s top government science and research organisation.
As well as liaising with political heavyweights, Pearman gave hundreds of briefings to other agencies and organisations in the public and private sector.
My profile I think grew from a broad view of both the climate science but also the potential consequences. I also held strong views that as a public servant I had a responsibility to publicise scientific findings of wider potential relevance.
My relatively senior role in CSIRO – which ultimately was my downfall – provided me with a platform perhaps less available to others.
Pearman is no longer at the CSIRO. He ended his 33-year stint with the agency in 2004 — resigning after a period when, he has said, he was being internally censored over his views on climate change.
So what would he tell the current Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, if he ever were asked into that particular Canberra office (he hasn’t been, so far).
My suggestions would be, listen to real experts, scientists, economists and engineers, and Academies about options; listen to the real trend occurring overseas in particularly with respect to energy sourcing and application options; look beyond the term of the current Government and think strategically; see this as an opportunity rather than a negative.
Earlier this month the Abbott Government announced the greenhouse gas reduction target it would take to the major United Nations COP21 climate talks in Paris in December. The target to cut emissions between 26 and 28 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels has been roundly criticised for lacking ambition.
