A CONTROVERSIAL climate change sceptic who likened chief climate adviser Ross Garnaut to a Nazi will deliver his Perth lecture tonight despite fierce opposition by academics.

Lord Christopher Monckton is in Perth to deliver the Lang Hancock Lecture at Fremantle’s Notre Dame University with a speech titled The Climate of Freedom.

The lecture is sponsored by Australia’s richest woman and Mr Hancock’s daughter, Gina Rinehart.

Lord Monckton is also addressing the Association of Mining and Exploration annual conference at Burswood this morning.

He is also booked to deliver a lecture at the University of WA on Monday at the Wilsmore Lecture Theatre.

The British aristocrat’s views have riled the science community, with more than 50 Australian academics have signed a letter calling on Notre Dame to cancel the lecture.

The letter was organised by University of Western Australia political science postgraduate student Natalie Latter, who is studying climate ethics.

Ms Latter said the letter started as a “modest gesture” but she now had 56 signatures.

“I just wanted to express my disappointment with the university and I sent it around to some colleagues and realized there was a lot of anger out there,” she said.

“Monckton has consistently undermined the work of lots of scientists. He’s misrepresented their work, misquoted their work, basically has no respect for the scientific or academic process, and so for a university to then be endorsing him is quite a betrayal of the academic community.

“He undermines and abuses the values of academic integrity and I think it's important for us to defend that.”

Curtin University sustainability professor Peter Newman labelled the upcoming lecture “disgraceful” and said Lord Monckton had no credibility.

“It’s not offensive to have differing points of view, its offensive for a university to put him on as though he were a scientist, as though he’s representing the kind of thing that universities stand for which is that you do try to find the truth in things rather than just opinion,” he told 6PR.

“He’s never published anything in a refereed journal.

“To have a university say this is a distinguished person who is representing a point of view that needs to be heard, this is not right.

“It gives credibility to a point of view that is purely representing a reaction to change, it’s not actually looking at evidence.”

WA Premier Colin Barnett said he didn't agree with calls to bar Lord Monckton from speaking at the university.

``Whether people agree or disagree with his views this is a free and open society and I don't see any reason why he shouldn't speak,'' the premier said.

``He's not professing anarchy or racist points of view or anything like that.

``I think he's expressing his view on climate change and he should be able to express it.''

Mr Barnett said he did think the world was going through a period of climate change and recent and frequent severe weather events appeared to be evidence of that.

Notre Dame defend Monckton booking

Notre Dame business school dean Chris Doepel said the university was happy to host Lord Monckton because it wished to provide a forum where ``rigorous discussion of contentious public issues can take place''.

He told ABC Radio that the university acknowledged that Lord Monckton's views on climate change were widely contested and he expected a vigorous question time at the end of his speech.

``The university does not take a view one way or the other on the positions advocated by Christopher Monckton,'' Professor Doepel said.

Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said he would be attending the lecture.

“This will be a controversial lecture and I will be there to challenge him on the facts,” Mr Pettitt wrote on his blog.

“While Lord Monckton has the right to his own opinion, he does not have the right to his own facts.”

'We did not invite Monckton' - UWA vice chancellor

The University of WA has also distanced itself from the controversial speaker, and vice-chancellor Professor Alan Robson has said an event booked for Monday at the campus with Lord Monckton in no way reflected the views or values of the University.

Prof Robson said UWA had not invited Lord Monckton to speak at the University, he had simply booked the venue for a lecture.

“I reject the position put by Lord Monckton and find his anti-science stance and related comments offensive,” Prof Robson said.

“His views denigrate the values of universities, such as ours, where the quality of evidence-based and peer-reviewed science is paramount.

“However, in any one year, hundreds of non-university activities are booked by groups or individuals who are looking to hire a venue for their events.

“This is a service the University provides to the community and in no way does it mean that any of these events are endorsed by the University.”