Time to accept climate science: Flannery

SYDNEY (AAP) - May 23 - Australia is one of just a handful of countries still debating the science of global warming, the Gillard government's climate commission chief Tim Flannery says.
The commission, established by Labor earlier this year, has released its first report, which finds "the evidence that the earth's surface is warming rapidly is now exceptionally strong and beyond doubt".
Prof Flannery said on Monday there wasn't a credible government in the world that didn't have a climate policy in place.
"We're beyond now arguing about the science by and large although in this country it's still an issue, which is why we've brought out the report," the environmentalist told reporters in Canberra.
"It's an issue here and the United States and Canada (because) we've done pretty well out of the century of fossil fuels and we don't have bipartisan support to move ahead."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard used the report to argue Australia couldn't afford to be misled by false claims.
Labor wants to introduce a carbon tax in mid-2012 to reduce dangerous pollution.
"We can't let this debate be waylaid by people who don't accept the science," Ms Gillard told reporters.
"No one in this country would have said it was acceptable to not fund Ian Frazer's cervical cancer vaccine because a radio personality thought that it wasn't going to be any good. Well, the same applies to this debate."
Opposition climate action spokesman Greg Hunt insists the coalition supports the science as presented in the commission's report but not Labor's proposed response.
"The coalition recognises the world is warming and that humans are having an impact on that warming," Mr Hunt said in a statement.
But Liberal powerbroker Nick Minchin, for one, isn't about to accept that argument.
"To say humans have had an impact, well that's the debate, isn't it - to what extent is there an impact," he told AAP.
"It's quite wrong for this committee to proclaim that the scientific debate is over.
"There is a very lively scientific debate about the causes of climate change and the role of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Monday claimed the commission's report endorsed his direct action policy - which focuses on storing carbon in soil and vegetation.
Mr Abbott said it got a tick of approval "as a rapid way of getting our emissions down".
But that's too cute by half for the Australian Greens.
"This report today blows Tony Abbott's climate program out of the water absolutely," spokeswoman Christine Milne told reporters.
"The report says you cannot just have offsets in the landscape. You have to reduce fossil fuel emissions plus restore carbon to the landscape."
The commission's report states that sequestering carbon in soil is a good idea because it improves the land's productivity and can deliver "quick gains" on the abatement front.
But it makes clear that, on its own, such offsets won't do anything to transform the economy and drive much-needed investments in renewables.
"(To do that) we need some sort of price on carbon," Prof Flannery said.
"A price is unavoidable."
Fellow commissioner and report author Will Steffen, a Canberra-based climate scientist, said there was another problem with relying on storing carbon in land systems rather than reducing emissions.
Simply put, the CO2 wasn't secure, he said.
There was always the risk the carbon could eventually be re-released as a result of bushfires, soil respiration or insect outbreaks.