You’ve made a difference to CSIRO

04.05.16 By
This article is more than 7 years old

Together, the Climate Council community has shown time and time again that standing up together as a strong voice for science can produce real wins.

And today, you can add another victory to your belt.

In February, we reacted in outrage after CSIRO announced they would gut their climate science division. You helped us keep the pressure on by sharing our report and video far and wide.

Today, in response to widespread community outrage to the cuts, the government announced it would open a Climate Science Centre.

This is welcome news and it would not have occurred without your support – so thank you.

The research hub will be housed at the CSIRO’s existing Hobart facility and will be guided by a national climate science advisory committee, which will report to Science Minister Christopher Pyne.

The CSIRO also announced that announced that 75 positions would be cut from the oceans and atmosphere business unit rather than the 110 originally announced.

The new centre will have 40 dedicated CSIRO scientists. While this is a positive step, it’s not enough – we’ll still have less climate science capacity than before the cuts were announced.

While there are still some unanswered questions about how the new hub will function, what is certain is that climate science is in better shape than it was yesterday.

The Great Barrier Reef is suffering the worst coral bleaching event in history and last month was the hottest March on record globally, the eleventh consecutive month to break its monthly temperature record.

We need more research, not less, if Australia is going to be able to prepare for and adapt to these challenges.

We’ll keep fighting for Australia to keep its promise in Paris to increase support for climate research.

 

P.S. We’ll never stop fighting for more climate research, because we know that our response to climate change should be based on the best science available. Please consider chipping in what you can so that we can keep the pressure on.