Scientists ask Aussie PM to act tough on climate

MELBOURNE: Australia's top scientists studying climate change have asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to take measures to drastically cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions and be part of global efforts to this end.

A team of 16 scientists, who worked with the UN's Inter-government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), shot off a letter to Rudd, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and Environment Minister Peter Garrett urging to cut emissions by 25 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020, 'The Age' reported today.

"The 2007 IPCC report ... has unequivocally concluded that our climate is warming rapidly, and that we are now at least 90 per cent certain that this is primarily due to human activities," according to the letter.

If the government does not legislate to cut emissions by 25 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020, then it "will leave Australians with a legacy of economic, environmental, social and health costs that will dwarf the scale of national investment required to address this fundamental problem", the letter warned.

Earlier this month, government's climate change advisor Ross Garnaut had recommended that Australia should make a "slow start" by cutting emissions only by 10 per cent by 2020.

"Other nations have taken action and have committed to further action," the letter said, adding "We urge you to act decisively to maintain global momentum and to protect Australia's future."

The signatories to the letter include Roger Jones, co-author of IPCC's fourth assessment, the former chair of the joint scientific committee of the world climate research program (WCRP) John Church and his WCRP colleague Ann Henderson-Sellers.