Undue Influence: oil and gas giants infiltrate Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology

The Bureau of Meteorology, the long-trusted national weather, climate and water agency, was established in 1906.  It is tasked with “delivering products and services that contribute to the health, safety, wellbeing, social and economic lives of all Australians”.

One would expect, therefore, that tackling climate change is a key way of contributing to that health and wellbeing.

Freedom of Information documents have, however, revealed that gas giants such as Shell, Santos, Woodside and Chevron, some of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, are some of the Bureau’s biggest “customers”. In the 2018/2019 financial year, total revenue from these companies was $4.6 million. Word doc FoI request – BoM customers

That kind…