CSIRO’s climate change science is leading edge and not gagged

“CSIRO is fearless in talking about our science and its findings, and making recommendations for policy, but policy itself must be informed by a wide range of issues, and science is only one of them. We inform policy, we don’t write it,” Dr Garrett said.

Dr Garrett said CSIRO Climate change scientists are not gagged and are making a significant contribution to national and international climate change science. For example:

• CSIRO supports eight scientists who are either Convening Lead Authors of Chapters as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment or are lead authors of Chapters. This is an impressive contribution by any single organisation; especially since the number of scientists involved internationally in greenhouse and climate change research has grown significantly since the First Assessment published in 1990
• CSIRO’s has delivered a full set of climate model experiments as part of the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• CSIRO scientists are extremely well connected internationally with many serving on international science planning committees. Including, for example, holding the Vice Chairmanship of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Program (the world’s major international climate science research program).
• In the last few months CSIRO scientists have authored or co-authored three major papers published that have significantly advanced the science on climate change, two in Nature and one in Geophysical Research Letters.

  “Dr Garrett said CSIRO Climate change scientists are not gagged and are making a significant contribution to national and international climate change science.”

• CSIRO scientists continue to be awarded prestigious national and international prizes for their research contribution to climate and climate change.
• As part of its work CSIRO has developed a regional climate modelling capability that is highly innovative, flexible and effective.
• CSIRO recognizes that the demands for climate change research are greater than ever, which is why we initiated the development of the ACCESS model jointly with the Bureau of Meteorology.