Emissions trading "cannot work", coal must be phased out and nuclear must be part of the world's energy mix, according to renowned NASA climate science James Hansen.
In a nuclear power debate last night in Melbourne, Hansen began by warning that the public and decision-makers did not yet understand the seriousness of the climate change challenge.
"There is a huge gap between … what is understood by the relevant scientific community and what is known by the people who need to know, and that is the public and policy-makers.
"And remarkably that gap has increased dramatically in just the last the six months in response to a great hoax that has been perpetrated on the public by those who want to cling to business-as-usual. They confuse the public, falsely discrediting the science by making mountains out of molehills. At the same time, the science has actually crystallised," he said.
Hansen said new data showed the climate "is moving closer to tipping points, where dynamics can taken over, initiating changes out of humanity's control".
"The great ice-sheets on Antarctica and Greenland are shedding ice faster and faster. They threaten to disintegrate, leaving our children and grand-children with continually rising sea-levels that will reach many metres," he said.
'Desolate planet'
Hansen warned of the prospect of ecosystems collapsing, "leaving a desolate planet for future generations".
"But this does not need to be," he said.
"Stabilising climate has one overwhelming requirement. Humanity must phase out coal emissions. Maintaining a habitable planet demands that."
Hansen said this must involve a carbon price, in the form of a "flat fee" collected from fossil fuel companies, describing this as a "simple and honest" strategy.
'Cap-and-trade gimmickry cannot work. Cap-and-trade cannot be harmonised globally. Many nations, China … India … will never accept a cap on their emissions," he said.
"But China knows it must impose a rising price on carbon, or it will become addicted to fossil fuels and pollution."
Hansen said U.S. wind turbines dropping ice had killed more people than had its nuclear industry.
Nuclear 'must be part of the solution'
Hansen said nuclear power "must be part of the global solution", noting China has 11 nuclear plants, 24 under construction and plans for many more.
"India plans for its electricity to be mostly nuclear by the middle of the century."
Hansen said third-generation nuclear power plants now being built don't require human intervention to shut down if there is any anomaly, while fourth-generation reactors would have even more advantages.
"Proponents of renewable energy and nuclear power should not be at each other's throats," he said.
"Both of these are essential to replace fossil fuels."
Hansen said the "empirical evidence" does not support the claim that nuclear is too expensive and Germany's experience had shown renewables can be expensive.
'Too expensive, too slow and unnecessary'
However, Eco-Futures director Molly Harriss-Olson said nuclear power was "too slow, too expensive , too dangerous and not necessary".
Mark Diesendorf, deputy director of the UNSW Institute for Environmental Studies, said fourth-generation reactors were a distant prospect, adding that it was wrong to claim the world must "choose between coal and nuclear".
That creates a "false choice between BHP Billiton and BHP Billiton", he said.
The capabilities of existing renewable technologies and those on the verge of being commercially ready meant the world needed neither coal nor nuclear, he said.
