Switkowski says rushed green efforts pointless. 08/03/2007. ABC News Online

Go Ziggy Go

Switkowski says rushed green efforts pointless.


The head of the nation's major nuclear science organisation says that there is nothing Australia can do as a whole to make a difference to climate change.
Ziggy Switkowski, the newly appointed head of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), led an inquiry last year into the possibility of replacing coal and gas with nuclear power.
Dr Switkowski has told a business council forum in Canberra that current discussions about how the country could become greener would have little impact.
"Australia is hostage to global warming, not to national warming," he said.
"Arguably nothing Australia does at a local level will make any difference to our climate."
He says that climate change happens slowly and any decisions need to be carefully considered.
"The reality is climate change occurs over long periods of time, and it's much more important in my mind that we set the direction right so that we arrive at the right spot in the middle of the century than to do a whole lot of things at the moment because it makes us somehow or other feel that we are making a contribution," he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Switkowski says insurance companies could easily include nuclear insurance in their policies.
The Greens say any future nuclear power plant owners need to be legally responsible for radiation damage to private property, given that standard nuclear exclusion clauses exist in every insurance policy.
However, in the event of more nuclear reactors, Dr Switkowski says there is no need for concern.
"Happily there is no history of accident and claims in this industry, aside from the two that are well known, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been a lot of work into formulating a framework to handle such an event," he said.
"I don't see that we're going to be pressed to invent something here."