The new resources minister, Matthew Canavan, has warned there is still a level of uncertainty about the impact of carbon emissions on global warming and described the Adani Carmichael coalmine as an “incredibly exciting project” for Australia.

Canavan, who has previously called for funding for climate change sceptic scientists, is also responsible for the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, which will decide whether to recommend the Queensland government’s application for a federal loan for the Adani railway link.

He said while he had the final decision on projects recommended by the NAIF, the body had only come into being on 1 July and had yet to make any recommendations to him as minister.

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Canavan is the biggest winner of the ministry reshuffle, elevated to cabinet and given the resources portfolio to add to his northern Australia outer ministry position. He said he accepted the warming impact of carbon dioxide, notwithstanding a level of uncertainty. He accused “certain interest groups” of exaggerating the effects of carbon emissions.

“There is a level of uncertainty about the impact of carbon emissions,” Canavan told Sky News. “Indeed, in the last IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report, the level of confidence reduced in the forcing effect of carbon emissions.

“There is a lot about the climate system we don’t understand, a lot of assumptions we have to make with projections of course. I just feel we should all be a little more humble about our climate and our system.

“To think that we know it all and exactly how to finetune the temperature, to talk of half a degree of temperature that we could somehow manage that and hit that target, we don’t understand all the impacts.”

Canavan said climate policy changes impacted “real people’s lives” and moving to 100% renewables was naive.

“We do understand that making some policy changes have real world impacts on real people’s lives, it would cause people to be very poor if we completely cut fossil fuels out of the world economy,” Canavan said.

“There is still more than a billion people without access to electricity in our world and these are real world issues we need to be adult about.”

Canavan said there were “great advances” in the coal industry, including ultra-critical and supercritical power plants, which produce less emissions but are more expensive.

“Talk of moving to 100% renewables is not only quite naive at the moment – maybe that is something that can happen but we can’t bank on it,” Canavan said. “It is also something that will imperil our prosperity and welfare.”

He described the Adani project, which has been delayed by financing issues, a global coal slump and legal challenges by traditional owners and environmental groups, as “an incredibly exciting project for our country”.

He said as minister he saw his primary job as facilitating the project to “make it easy as possible” while ticking the boxes on environmental, health and safety and community impacts.

Canavan, who lives within a few hundred kilometres of the mine, said the project was an opportunity for Australia to improve its relationship with India.

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Asked whether the coalmine was at odds with the Coalition government’s commitment to the Paris targets to reduce carbon emissions, Canavan said: “There is nothing inconsistent between our coalmining industry and the targets we are aiming for through the Paris agreement.

“The idea that we can only meet our targets through innovation in renewables – which certainly can happen and there is a big future for solar and other things – the idea that that is the only area that we can meet our targets is kind of narrow.

“Why wouldn’t we also think about improvements in fossil fuel technologies ... I am not someone who is going to be anti-fossil fuels for the sake of it.”

Canavan, an economist who has previously worked at the Productivity Commission, was also asked if he still supported income splitting, which allows a main earner to split income with a partner for tax purposes.

Canavan said he believed in a very strong family support system and evoked John Howard as a believer in income splitting.



“We do have a system that does provide benefits but it’s largely through the welfare system and family tax benefit system,” he said. “I am concerned about the increasing gap between the choice to stay at home and look after one’s child and putting them in childcare.

“I mean, particularly when they are young, the evidence is so stark that full time or close to full-time care from a mum or a dad makes a big difference to a child’s development. This is OECD data, this is not something as extreme. For a kid below the age of one, it makes a big difference.”

