“Professor Ian Chubb has made an incredible contribution to science in Australia and we thank and commend him on his outstanding contribution as Australian Chief Scientist and also as an eminent university administrator and academic over the course of his distinguished career”, Mr Pyne says.
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The announcement coincides with a petition by 61 prominent Australians calling for coal to be put on the agenda at world climate change talks to be held in Paris later this year.
The role provides independent advice to the government on science, innovation and technology.
While announcing Alan Finkel’s appointment, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the era of coal exports was not over.
Sporting heroes, climate change authorities and religious representatives penned the open letter on Tuesday, asking for the world’s dependence on coal to end.
If coal, oil and natural gas are to be replaced, he says, everything else – including nuclear energy – needs to be considered.
“His experience in science and the commercial sector means he is uniquely qualified to act as one of the Government’s key advisers…and on ways to translate our great scientific research into real, tangible outcomes for Australians and the economy”, Mr Turnbull said.
“However, if you are in a remote community, or if you are in a community in a developing country where there is no electricity grid, and the alternative is generating power by burning diesel, then solar panels and a few batteries, if the efficiency of the panels is improved and the price and efficiency of the batteries has come down could actually be and very often is much more cost effective. Including the fact we don’t yet have the infrastructure, the training – all the things that would enable it to be a viable industry”, Dr Finkel said.
“With enough storage, we could do it in this country with solar and wind”.
The letter comes after the president of the Pacific state of Kiribati, Anote Tong, urged a global moratorium on new coal mines and coal mine expansions to keep global warming below risky levels.
This is the same “coal is cleaner” argument as his predecessor, however Mr Turnbull has stopped short of saying coal is “good for humanity” as Tony Abbott once did. “It would make not the blindest bit of difference to global emissions”, he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday, as countries would buy it elsewhere.
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Australia now has no nuclear power industry and relies heavily on fossil fuels. He is also the President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).
