Australia Day honours: From Covid to climate, navigating the extremes for Alan Finkel

Alan Finkel says the politics of the Covid-19 pandemic has reminded him of the climate change culture wars that dominated his tenure as chief scientist.

Former chief scientist Alan Finkel. Picture: AAP

Alan Finkel says the politics of the Covid-19 pandemic has reminded him of the climate change culture wars that dominated his tenure as Australia’s chief scientist.

Dr Finkel, chief scientist from 2016 to 2020 and now the leading adviser to Prime Minister Scott Morrison on low emissions technologies, said governments had the difficult task of finding a pathway through the extremes of the debate on both issues.

The electrical engineer and neuroscientist has been recognised with a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for his services to science, energy innovation, Covid-19 response initiatives and education. “There is a parallel with the pandemic response,” Dr Finkel told The Australian.

“You see a tension between people who say ‘the only thing that counts is the public health response and we should be in lockdown and aim for zero’.

“And then there are others who say ‘yes but then the economy will be devastated and people will have mental health problems so we should just open up and let it rip’.

“And what government has to do is navigate a pathway in between. It is the same as climate change. We have to be bold and ambitious and find solutions, but we have got to keep the economy going because people at the end of the day are not prepared to give up what they have got.

“That is why I am very pleased with the role I have got as the chair of the low-emissions technology roadmap, because what we are trying to do here is acknowledge that people are not prepared to sacrifice their lifestyle.

“That means we have to come up with solutions that are the best of both worlds. “The ambition is to cultivate new and emerging technologies … so that eventually they get to price parity with the high-emissions incumbents and become the dominant choice.”

Dr Finkel said, while there were legitimate debates about the funding towards climate change initiatives, the Morrison government was on the right track with its policies given its focus was on technological development.

Dr Finkel – who last year urged climate change activists to be both ambitious and patient – said some environmentalists had a “certain naivety that these things are easy”.

“There are people who think ‘I’ve got solar panels at home and a battery in the basement. It was easy for me. Come on government get on with it’,” he said.

“But it is so much harder than that.”

Dr Finkel, who is a generous philanthropist through the Alan and Elizabeth Finkel Foundation, said the pandemic had raised the status of science and technology within the community.

“It has been building but has taken a quantum step up during the pandemic,” he said.

“There is the visibility of scientists and health professionals providing advice to government and the visibility of the scientists and technologists to deliver solutions.

“The speed they have been able to do this and the way we have been able to manage the pandemic spread, as bad as it is, it would be much worse without all of that.

“Then of course, think about how technology has been able to keep our economies open, even with a work-from-home mandate or the further extreme of lockdowns.

“Science and technology are critically important across all of our lives and it is appropriate that communities and politicians hear what science has to offer.”