Liberal powerbroker Nick Minchin attack Climate Commission report 'nonsense'
The Australian May 23, 2011 11:22AM
Julia Gillard receives The Critical Decade report from Tim Flannery (left) and Will Steffen in Canberra. Picture: Ray Strange Source: The Australian
LIBERAL powerbroker Nick Minchin has attacked a new report that declares the world is in imminent danger from human-induced climate change as offensive nonsense from known "global warming alarmists".
Senator Minchin, who played a key role in terminating Malcolm Turnbull's leadership over his support for emissions trading, said there was still a legitimate debate over the role of humans in climate change.
“The so-called Climate Commission is a Labor government-appointed committee of known climate alarmists, selectively appointed ... to further the cause of global warming alarmism,” he said following today's release of the commission's first report.
“I think everybody should take anything they say with a grain of salt,” Senator Minchin said.
“What's most offensive is (climate commissioner) Will Steffen suggesting the scientific debate is over.
“That's nonsense because there is a very lively scientific debate about the role of human-induced Co2 emissions in climate change.”
The Climate Commission report says the world has at best 10 years to cut carbon emissions or it will face dangerous atmospheric warming and sea level rises.
Professor Steffen also called today for an end to “fruitless, phoney” debate, saying climate change denial is a luxury the world can no longer afford.
Senator Minchin is retiring in July but he remains a close confidant of Tony Abbott and his views as a party elder are widely sought.
He is on the record as being sceptical of mainstream climate science, saying earlier this year he believed the world was more likely to be cooling than getting hotter.
Senator Minchin said the new report did nothing to further Labor's case for a carbon tax.
“What I think is most frustrating in all of this is this report provides no basis for Australia acting unilaterally on a carbon tax,” he said.
“Given we are responsible for about one per cent of the world's emissions of CO2 and when it's clear that China's additional emissions over the next few decades will completely swamp any reductions in our emissions, anything Australia does will be utterly pointless and have no impact whatsoever on the global climate.”
Greens senator Christine Milne backed the commission's finding that Australia faced a critical decade on climate change, and also called for an end to the debate over whether climate change is real.
“What this report will do is actually help the Australian population see that what we've been having is a phoney debate in Australia that's been run by the sceptics, financed by big business, by coal, by oil around the world,” she said.
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