Flannery praises Newman's climate record

25 Sep 2012, 8:59 pm   -   Source: AAP
Tim Flannery says it's too early to say whether the Qld premier is taking global warming seriously. (AAP)

Tim Flannery says it's too early to say whether the Qld premier is taking global warming seriously. (AAP)

Climate change commissioner Tim Flannery says Queensland Premier Campbell Newman was committed to sustainability when he was mayor of Brisbane.

Australia's climate change commissioner says it's too early to say whether the Queensland premier is taking global warming seriously enough.

Environmentalist Tim Flannery was in Brisbane on Tuesday to launch the Australian climate commission's latest report, which examines the impact of global warming on Queensland.

The Critical Decade: Queensland Climate Impacts and Opportunities warns that the state's economic powerhouses of tourism and agriculture are at significant risk from rising sea levels and changing weather patterns.

Meanwhile, the Liberal National Party (LNP) government, since gaining power in March, has wound back Labor's solar power subsidies and scrapped eight carbon reduction programs to save money.

Professor Flannery wouldn't be drawn on Premier Campbell Newman's approach to climate change.

"While he was mayor of Brisbane he was definitely leading a sustainability charge there that continues through to this day," he told reporters at the launch.

"We'll just have to see what the future brings in that regard."

But the Queensland Greens said state Environment Minister Andrew Powell was on the record as questioning the science behind global warming.

The party's Senate candidate Adam Stone said responsible action on climate change would protect communities and have economic benefits through clean energy.

"But it is hard to be optimistic that our state government will seize that opportunity given their sorry record," Mr Stone said in a statement.

Climate scientist Lesley Hughes was also at the report's launch and said Queensland's sea levels have been rising by about three millimetres a year for the past two decades.

This was on par with the rest of the world, Professor Hughes said.

She warned that more intense cyclones, warmer, dryer weather, and patches of intense rainfall could stress crops and livestock, harm beaches and reefs and damage coastal development.

"The risks to Queensland and elsewhere in Australia from climate change are significant and have to be taken seriously," Prof Hughes said.

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