<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/20/csiro-job-cuts-climate-australia-projections-to-global-reports>
"Job cuts at the national science agency mean Australia will no longer be able
to submit climate projections to form part of global reports and will have
significantly reduced ability to forecast future damage to the country, leading
researchers have warned.
Multiple sources told
Guardian Australia that CSIRO planned to sack a third
of the team working on the national climate model that provides projections
relied on by governments, councils, industry and farmers as they plan for the
future.
Senior scientists said it would result in Australia no longer having an
international-standard climate model to contribute projections to major
assessment reports by the world’s leading climate science body, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
CSIRO management is expected to confirm at a staff meeting on Thursday that it
is making about 100 scientists redundant as part of a plan announced last
November to cut full-time research positions by between 300 and 350. It follows
the sacking of 818 support staff last year.
The agency’s chief executive, Doug Hilton, has said the latest cuts would go
ahead despite the Albanese government announcing $387m in extra CSIRO funding
in last week’s federal budget. The new money is largely to upgrade buildings
and research infrastructure, including the Australian Centre for Disease
Preparedness at Geelong.
About five of the 15 CSIRO scientists who work on the model known as the
Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (Access) have been told
they are likely to lose their jobs.
CSIRO management told a Senate inquiry in February that the impact of the cuts
would be minimal as it had about 60 people working on the climate model. But
Andy Hogg, a professor of ocean and climate modelling and the director of
Access-NRI, which supports the software development that underpins the CSIRO
projections, said that was not the case.
“If you look at the team of people on the core capability it’s 12 to 15, and we
understand that it’s about five that are going,” he said. “These cuts will make
us suboptimal in core climate science capability in atmospheric and
oceanographic modelling, and in understanding the concepts that really drive
our weather and climate.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
