Brexit could leave the European Union struggling with its climate targets

Natalie Latter.

Britain has been a consistently progressive driver of climate policy in the European Union. Given the EU’s significance in international climate change negotiations, Britain’s vote to leave the union has implications both for EU policy and for the global Paris climate agreement struck last year.

The UK has been crucial to EU climate change policy in ways that have evolved over time. Britain’s strong domestic emissions reductions have made more ambitious EU burden-sharing targets possible. This in turn gave credibility to the idea of Europe as a global leader on climate ambition – something that has become a cherished part of many European citizens' self-identity. Britain has also been a crucial bridge between the United States and Europe in the United Nations' climate negotiation process.

Yet the EU’s climate policy ambition has arguably already declined over the past decade as it has struggled with a rising tide of resistance from more recalcitrant member states, chiefly Poland but also including, at various times, Italy, Hungary and Romania. Assuming that the EU manages to stave off any further disintegration, these voices will likely grow louder.

Read the piece by a PhD Scholar from the University of Western Australia,  Natalie Latter, on The Conversation -  “Brexit could leave the European Union struggling with its climate targets.”

Australian emblem appears able to resist Earth's distrupted climate system

Banksia plants appear
 resilient to climate change.

Banksia plants are Australian emblems, famous for their colourful flowers and dark, knobbly seed pods — the inspiration of May Gibbs’ big bad banksia men. Just like those banksia men, unerringly creepy after all those decades, their real-life counterparts may be just as resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Researchers from The University of Western Australia (UWA) and Department of Parks and Wildlife (WA) surveyed six iconic banksia to assess the impact of climate change in south-west Western Australia. Since the 1970s, south west Western Australia – one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots – has become warmer and significantly drier. In addition, the science of biodiversity has gone digital, through Australia’s largest online biodiversity resource, our Atlas of Living Australia (ALA).

Honours student Sarah Randell from UWA deployed an army of 40 citizen scientists to survey six banksia species at 300 different sites between Kalbarri and Albany. They then compared the results with data collected over 25 years ago for the Banksia Atlas, another citizen science project, which is now freely available through the ALA.

Read the CSRIO blog - “Big bad banksias standing up to climate change.”

Distorted values driving Earth's changing climate system

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any of us in the developed world appear to have distorted values.

Mark Beeson.

Our desire to own things, that is have personal control and use of those same things, has led to a market-driven, consumerist way of life that drives the circumstances manifesting themselves as earth’s changing climate system.

Few things illustrate that better than the recent sale of an original Picasso painting at auction for nearly $200 million.

The painting itself is not necessarily carbon-rich or the product of misplaced values, but the power to purchase it, that is for an individual have at his or her disposal such a fund which is applied to such a frivolous purpose, has undoubtedly been assembled through the exploitation of carbon-intensive goods.

The Professor of International Politics at University of Western Australia, Mark Beeson, writes in The Conversation, about the complications for the world in the sale and purchase of the Picasso painting.

Read his story - “The art market: Not a pretty picture”.

Consensus not a concern when it comes to 'Consensus Centre'

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onsensus does not appear to be a concern for the Australian Government in in efforts to set up the Australian Consensus Centre.

The University of Western Australia had been the contacted as the site of the Bjorn Lomborg centre, but the idea was abandoned once it was found there was no consensus about the proposal.

The university just recently said the centre was no longer suitable to be a part of the institution and now a spokesman for Education Minister Christopher Pyne said the government would continue to seek a site for the centre.

Also, the spokesman said the government was waiting on legal advice on the status of the contract with the university.

Read Stephanie Woods story in the Melbourne Age today - “Bjorn Lomborg consensus centre: Christopher Pyne seeks new location”.

Lomborg gone from WA University amid passionate reaction

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 “passionate emotional reaction" has been cited for the cancellation of the contract for an academic centre in Western Australia headed by Bjorn Lomborg.

Bjorn Lomborg.

An ABC story - “UWA cancels contract for Consensus Centre headed by controversial academic Bjorn Lomborg” – tells readers, “The University of Western Australia has cancelled the contract for a policy centre that was to be headed up by controversial academic Bjorn Lomborg after a "passionate emotional reaction" to the plan.”

“The Federal Government had pledged to contribute $4 million to the Consensus Centre, a think tank that was to use methods similar to those used by Dr Lomberg's Copenhagen Centre.

“Dr Lomborg has attracted controversy for suggesting that the dangers of climate change are overstated, and that society faces other more pressing challenges such as global poverty.

“In a statement, UWA Vice Chancellor Paul Johnson said the creation of the centre had attracted "mixed reactions" from staff, students and the general public,” the ABC says.

Disgraced WA premier and Bjorn Lomborg compared

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niversity of Western Australia academic Ray Wills has compared the appointment of "sceptical environmentalist" Bjorn Lomborg to head up a new development think tank to putting disgraced former premier Brian Burke in charge of economic policy.

Bjorn Lomborg.

And at least one academic has publicly called on university vice-chancellor Paul Johnson to reconsider Dr Lomborg's appointment in a crunch meeting with staff on Friday, according to Academic Staff Association president Raymond da Silva Rosa.

Adjunct Professor Wills, who has been a spokesman for the university on climate change issues for the past seven years, said there was a lot of disquiet among the university ranks about the centre.

"The appointment tarnishes the reputation of the university," he told Fairfax Media.

Read more here: “Academic likens Lomborg appointment to putting Brian Burke in charge of economy”.

Academics see Abbott-backed Lomborg move as polluting their reputations

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reation of Tony Abbott-backed Lomborg 'consensus centre' has tarnished our reputations, say academics.

On the day Fairfax Media revealed that the idea for the centre - which comes as a result of a $4 million grant from the federal government - originated in the Prime Minister's Office, academics stated their concern that the new centre has tarnished their reputations.

In a letter to David Harrison, University of Western Australia's head of corporate and government affairs, obtained by Fairfax Media, the head of the School of Animal Biology Sarah Dunlop said one international research fellow is already set to transfer their fellowship to another institution in protest.

Read more in the Sydney Morning Herald - “Creation of Tony Abbott-backed Lomborg 'consensus centre' has tarnished our reputations, say academics”.

Discredited Bjorn Lomborg criticised in Science Blog

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jorn Lomborg has argued that we should not concern ourselves too much will global warming, rather concentrate on and apply our efforts other social matters.

The Danish director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and former director of the Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen has been in the public eye since writing his controversial and best-selling 2001 book, The Skeptical Environmentalist.

And now the largely discredited political scientist, whose philosophies and values fit with those of the Australian Government has been handed $4m to set up the “Australian Consensus Centre” at the University of Western Australia’s business school.

Writing on the Science Blog, Greg Laden, is rather forthright about what Lomborg says, simply declaring him as”wrong”.

In his post - “Bjorn Lomborg Is Wrong About Bangladesh And Sea Level Rise” – Laden says, “Lomborg seems to not know much about sea level rise. He once noted that sea level rise had stopped, or even decreased, by referring to a single year’s worth of data.”

Climate contrarian given $4m - 'makes my shoulders droop'

-      Robert McLean

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ews such as this makes my shoulders droop.

Climate contrarian Bjørn Lomborg has been given $4m by the Abbot government to establish his “consensus centre” at an Australian university.

This contradictory move comes at a time when Abbott and coalition cohorts are struggling to impose deep spending cuts on the higher education sector.

The scientific and morally discredited Lomborg is to chair of body which will set up the “Australia Consensus Centre”, modelled on the Copenhagen Consensus Center methodology, at a new centre in the University of WesternAustralia’s business school.

A spokesman said the “Australia Consensus Centre” was a proposal put forward by the “university and Dr Lomborg’s organisation”.

A story in The Guardian - “Abbott government gives $4m to help climate contrarian set up Australian centre” – said, “Sources have told Guardian Australia the establishment of the centre had come as a surprise even to senior staff in the business school, who were unaware that the centre was being established until shortly before it was announced this month.”

Meanwhile, Climate Council chief, Tim Flannery, wrote to the council’s supporters saying:

“The Australian Government today announced they would contribute $4m for Danish climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg to establish a new “consensus centre” at the University of Western Australia.

In the face of deep cuts to the CSIRO and other scientific research organisations, it's an insult to Australia’s scientific community.

As the Climate Commission, we were abolished by the Abbott Government in 2013 on the basis that our $1.5 million annual operating costs were too expensive. We relaunched as the Climate Council after thousands of Australians chipped in to the nation’s biggest crowd-funding campaign - remember this video?

It seems extraordinary that the Climate Commission, which was composed of Australia’s best climate scientists, economists and energy experts, was abolished on the basis of a lack of funding and yet here we are three years later and the money has become available to import a politically-motivated think tank to work in the same space.

This is why the work of the Climate Council is so important - to counter this continuing ideological attempt at deceiving the Australian public.

Please consider chipping in a few dollars a week to help us stay independent and continue to fight the rising tide of misinformation.

Mr Lomborg’s views have no credibility in the scientific community. His message hasn’t varied at all in the last decade and he still believes we shouldn't take any steps to mitigate climate change. When someone is unwilling to adapt their view on the basis of new science or information, it's usually a sign those views are politically motivated.

But with your support we will continue to fight back and reach millions of Australians with information that is based on the best science available. “