Vale Will Steffen: Australia mourns loss of a true “climate warrior”

Will Steffen, a world renowned climate scientist and a key figure in Australian efforts to drive meaningful and informed policy action against man-made global warming, has died in Canberra.

Steffen, whose most recent roles included as a Climate Councillor and as Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University, had suffered from pancreatic cancer. He was 75.

The news has been met with an outpouring of grief, with tributes mourning Steffen’s loss to the increasingly urgent global climate effort, and honouring his enormous contribution to that same cause.

In Australia, Steffen was the inaugural Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute from 2008-2012 and from 2004 to 2011 served as science adviser to the Australian government department of climate change.

From 2011 to 2013, Steffen was a commissioner on the Gillard government’s Climate Commission until it was scrapped by the Coalition Abbott government in 2013, along with Labor’s carbon pricing scheme and climate policy.

He was a Climate Councillor with the Climate Council for the past 10 years and helped establish the Climate Council after the Commission was abolished in 2013. 

“We’ve lost a truly leading thinker on climate change, someone who made a difference in how the world understands it. And a gentle, positive human being,” said the ANU’s Frank Jotzo on Twitter on Tuesday.

“I worked with Will when he was founding director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, and owe him much.”

Pep Candell, the director of the Global Carbon Project said he had “no words” for the loss.

“He had been one of the most influential individuals in global change science programs,” Candell said.

Australia’s ambassador for climate change, Kristin Tilley, described Steffen’s ability to explain complex climate science as unmatched.

“He inspired many to take stronger climate action. And he was a true gentleman,” she wrote on Twitter.

The Climate Council said that among Steffen’s “immense list of achievements,” he helped to build the Australian organisation from the ground up.

“We will always remember his bravery, his optimism, his kindness, his energy and his determination,” the Climate Council said.

“We are devastated that he is gone, but determined that his legacy will live on everyday in our work.”

The Australia Institute remembers Steffen as “a giant of climate science, unfailingly generous with his time and expertise.”

Federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen also offered his condolences on Twitter.

“Very few people around the world could claim to have done more to tackle climate change than Professor Will Steffen,” Bowen said.

“He was a first class scientist and a world class communicator. Around the world and in Australia, many are mourning the loss of a valued and loved colleague.”

Vale Will Steffen.