Climate Commission resurrects itself as Climate Council, a crowd-funded NPO  

The axe may have fallen on the Australian Climate Commission, but with the assistance of seed funding, crowd funding donations and social media promotion the Commission has reinvented itself as the Australian Climate Council. All the former Climate Commissioners, including former head Tim Flannery, are volunteering their time while the new Council solidifies as a reinvigorated Nonprofit Organisation.

“We’ve developed a real reputation for independence and authority in this area, and we just want to continue with that job,” he said, before a formal launch planned for Tuesday in Sydney.

Two days following their launch almost 39,000 people have Liked the group on Facebook, with another five thousand following the group on Twitter.

With an initial operating budget of $5.4million over four years, it’s expected that the new body will drastically cut their operational budget. Their fund raising efforts are off to a brilliant start with $400,000 raised in the first 24 hours.

In addition producing information on the science and impacts of climate change, the Commission provided a repository of information on the benefits of solar PV power and solar hot water, along with other renewable energy sources.

Support for the reformed group comes with the incoming Coalition government’s Direct Action Plan that has reduced the carbon emissions target from 20% lower than 2000 levels to 5%. The target revision and the nullification of a number of other climate change bodies has provoked skepticism from the climate research community about the aims and goals of the Government.

Flannery has become the figurehead for the group, explaining that in the wake of cuts to climate research bodies, “We haven’t seen any plans from the government to provide an alternative” to the commission.