Climate Council raises $1m through its fundraising drive in Australia
Body that replaces Climate Commission eradicated by Tony Abbott says 20,000 Australians have donated an average $50 each through its Obama-style fundraising drive.
The campaign to raise cash for a new Climate Council, run by climate change expert Professor Tim Flannery, has already generated $1m. Amanda McKenzie, the council’s chief executive, said 20,000 Australians had made donations with the average donation being $50.
"Australians have demanded to know what is happening to the planet," she said.
Flannery was fired as head of the federal government’s Climate Commission when Tony Abbott, the new Prime Minister, announced he was putting an end to the body in order to save money. The Commission was initially set up two years ago by the former Labor government to increase public awareness of climate change and it once received $1.6m in taxpayer funding annually. However, the new council is relying entirely on donations generated through an "Obama-style" online fundraising drive.
Ms Mckenzie states that the new Climate Council has planned for the money to go to employing researchers, developing reports and increasing public awareness about climate change science. Former commissioners including the former BP Australasia president Gerry Hueston and climate scientists Will Steffen and Lesley Hughes have agreed to give their time to the new body.
The council is currently working hard on realising a "lay-person's guide” to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
