Australian National University vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt has urged governments to listen to science and expert advice to head off "cataclysmic climate change" at a high-level Climate Adaptation Summit event.
Professor Schmidt gave a keynote address overnight along with other Nobel Prize laureates at a side event for the international summit which is being hosted by the Netherlands government.
The ceremony was used to launch a statement from more than 3000 scientists calling for urgent climate adaptation action.
"As a member of the world's scientific community, I'm here to tell you that science, as always, stands ready to serve the people of the world," Professor Schmidt said.
"Renewing our trust in science and other forms of knowledge is vital. In recent times, that trust has been undermined.
"'Science', 'expertise', 'evidence' ... The purveyors of doubt have tried to devalue these powerful weapons in the fight against climate change. We can't let them succeed."
In the speech he warned that Australia's experience with the Black Summer bushfires and extreme hail events is something the whole world may one day need to face as a result of climate change.
"As someone once said, nothing focuses the mind like the prospect of facing a firing squad.
"We are focused on climate change like never before."
He said that the response to COVID-19 had shown that science undertaken with urgency, scale and international co-operation had proven its value to humanity.
"The goodwill that science has generated must now be harnessed to this next big battle," he said.
Australia needs to scale up clean energy generation as soon as possible, he added.
"This is an urgent moral obligation which Australia must not shirk."
vignerons often use the sum of Degree Days [Σ (<T>-10C) where <T> > 10C] to chart the warmth of a climate/vintage. Here is how that is Changing in Canberra over time for Jan 14th. When @clonakilla was planted in 1971, the warmest vintages then are the coolest of today. pic.twitter.com/imC9fbIxHL
— Brian P Schmidt (@cosmicpinot) January 14, 2021
Professor Schmidt, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2011, spoke at the ceremony alongside Tawakkol Karman, Christopher Pissarides, Donna Strickland and Joseph Stiglitz.
The event was convened by the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.
It was also used to launch the science statement Global Scientists Call for Economic Stimulus to Address Climate Adaptation and COVID.
The statement, signed and released by more than 3000 scientists from more than 130 countries, calls on world leaders, decision-makers and investors to change the way they understand, plan and invest for a changing climate in order to limit future damage.
The statement calls for four revolutions to accelerate adaptation action, including changing the management of natural systems, bringing climate risk into long-term planning, providing primary and secondary education to all people and changing the way finance is organised to account for societal benefits.
The main Climate Adaptation Summit will be held on January 25 and 26.
