In international negotiations domestic politics and international relations are often entangled. The concept of a ‘two-level game’ can be used to understand when and how domestic politics and international relations interact. It is generally assumed to be a static state of interaction. While this may be a suitable assumption in one-off negotiations, it is unlikely to be so for prolonged negotiations which stretch across decades. In such cases the level of interaction may be greater in one round of negotiations than it is in another. In this seminar, Christian Downie will look at the role of the US and the EU over the last two decades of the international climate negotiations. In doing so, he will consider how the dynamic interactions between domestic politics and international relations might be conceived. A better understanding of these dynamics could help to explain why some international negotiations end in deadlock and others in agreement.

Christian Downie researches at the ANU Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) which is situated in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

Photo by ANU student Harriet Riley. This photo was entered in the 2009 CCI CAPTURE: Climate Change Impacts Photographic Competition.

Photo description by Harriet Riley

This image depicts delegates at the June 2009’s UNFCCC summit in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. I attempted to capture the intensity, complexity and frustration inherent in negotiating an international climate treaty. The 3000 participants worked from five in the morning through to midnight. The head of the Belarusian delegation, a grey-heard diplomat of great gravitas, died from a heart attack halfway through a major plenary. In Negotiation1 magazines like ‘Planet’ and ‘Eco’, put out daily by participating NGOs, litter the tables between cups of coffee. Ironically, there were no recycling facilities available.

Climate change is a long-term, complex problem involving fundamental uncertainties. Evaluating climate change policies thus depends critically on links among time preference, risk aversion, and the perceived rights of future generations. Economic models assume high time preference rates and low risk aversion, and support only modest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This presentation, in contrast, argues that aggressive climate stabilisation policies are justified on two grounds. First, people reveal high rates of risk aversion in real-world market decisions, so reducing climate risks provides highly valuable economic benefits. Second, not stabilising climate would impose large, uncompensated costs on future generations, which violates the moral premise that future generations are entitled to protection against uncompensated, potentially catastrophic harms.

Rich Howarth joined Dartmouth College’s Environmental Studies Program in 1998 and is Editor-in-Chief of Ecological Economics. His work emphasises the interface between economic theory and the ecological, moral, and social dimensions of environmental issues, with focuses on energy use, climate change, and ecological conservation.

Drinks and nibbles will be served after the seminar till 6.45. Please RSVP for catering purposes to meredith.bacon@anu.edu.au, T. 6125 0556.

This seminar is sponsored by the Environmental Economics Research Hub at the Crawford School, ANU

Climate change raises a number of challenges to human wellbeing, among these is the threat to our health. In combination with climate change, large-scale global environmental changes such as loss of biodiversity, changes in fresh water supplies and stresses on food production systems, have the potential to cause systemic adverse alterations in patterns of health and disease.

These can combine with many other specific challenges, including the emergence of new infectious diseases and the re-emergence and re-distribution of old infectious foes (such as tuberculosis and malaria). While, early on, the effects of these health changes are likely to be most severe in the developing world, they pose health threats to all of us. This lecture will
evaluate the impact, and significance, of these health threats and the strategies being adopted to avert and contain them.

Professor McMichael is a National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health. He has been an advisor and consultant on environmental health and climate change issues to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UN Environment Program, the World Bank and other international bodies. His pioneering research and writing on the health risks of climate change, in the 1990s, was combined with his central role in health risk assessment for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The research program on climate change health that he heads is now one of the largest and most internationally active in the world.

Professor John Mackenzie is a scientist with an outstanding international reputation in the field of
microbiology and its impacts on public health. He was awarded an Order of Australia in 2002 for service to microbiology research, as a leading contributor to the understanding of the genetics, pathogenesis and public health implications of viruses, and to education. He led the WHO mission into China seeking information on SARS in 2003 and was involved in the global response to Avian Flu in 2004.

This week the ANU Climate Change Institute (CCI) hosted a closed workshop focusing on the implementation of adaptive response strategies to strengthen against climate change impacts in developed and developing economies in the APEC Region.

Sponsors of the workshop were AusAID, the ANU Climate Change Institute, the ANU Exchange and the ANU Korea Institute.  The workshop was co-hosted by the APEC Virtual Centre for Enviromental Technology Exchange (Australia). Representatives from Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Australia attended the two day workshop held at the Australian National University.

The first session of the workshop was co-chaired by Ms Octavia Borthwick, Assistant Director General of the Asia Regional Branch at AusAID, and Professor Will Steffen, Executive Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute.

Keynote speakers for the event were:

Ms Octavia Borthwick, AusAID

Dr Heesu Park, Policy Advisor, Republic of Korea International Cooperation Agency

Dr Carmel Gacho, Senior Science Research Specialist, Industrial Technology Development Institute, Dept Science and Technology, Philippines

Dr Nguyen Dai Khanh, Director Technology and International Cooperation, National Hydro-Meteorological Service, Ministry of Natural Resources, Vietnam

Mr Hong-Seok Kim, Researcher, Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute, Republic of Korea

Mr Tom Worthington, Green Technology Strategies,  ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, Australia

Dr Phong Ngo, Nong Lam University Water Management Department, Agronomy Faculty Vietnam

Mr Tetsuro Fujitsuka, Director Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) via video-link from Kobe, Japan.

 Other presenters included:

Professor Tony Jakeman, ICAM Director, Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australia

Dr Christopher Silverio, Chief Science Research Specialist, Department of Science and Technology, the Philippines

Dr Michael Djordjevic, Research School of Biological Science, ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australia

Dr Keith Lovegrove, Solar Thermal Group, ANU College of Engineering and Computer Sciences

Dr Igor Skryabin, Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems, ANU College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, Australia

An expected outcome of the Workshop will be the production of a report which will be presented to the respective Government aid agencies, in Japan, Republic of Korea and Australia.

Photo (top): APEC VC Climate Change Workshop video-conference with APN Director Mr Tetsuro Fujitsuka and APN Secretariat, Kobe, Japan.

Photo (bottom): APEC VC delegates and Workshop participants.

Voluntary access to family planning should be made more easily available to poor communities in least developed countries to assist their ability to adapt to the harmful effects of a changing climate according to a researcher from The Australian National University.

Associate Professor Colin Butler from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at ANU has co-authored a report calling for increases in voluntary, rights-based family planning to complement other climate change adaptation programs in developing countries.

The findings have been published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The paper analyses climate change action programs from 40 developing countries. Nearly all of the programs studied identified at least one way that population growth increases the harmful effects of climate change.

“Whether it is faster degradation of natural resources, increased demand for resources, or heightened human vulnerability to extreme weather events, the fact that most countries indicated that at least one of these areas is of concern suggests that something needs to be done,” Associate Professor Butler said.

“We argue that voluntary access to family planning services, including those integrated with HIV/AID services, should be made more available to poor communities, especially in the least developed countries and form part of their climate change adaption strategy.”

Associate Professor Butler emphasises that there is a distinction between their approach, which prioritises the welfare of poor communities affected by climate change, and the other argument occasionally made, that calls for population growth to be slowed in low-income countries to limit increases in global carbon emissions.

“Our report reveals that governments in least developed countries are highly concerned about the impact of population growth upon their capacity to adapt to climate change and are demanding better access to family planning services.

“Rwanda’s population is expected to double by 2050 and Uganda’s is expected to triple. These countries and others are leading the call for greater access to family planning so they can tackle ongoing problems associated with climate change, like food insecurity, resource depletion, fresh water shortages and the spread of disease.”

Associate Professor Butler has called for national and international commitment to address the issue.

“At the national level, we need to see the integration of family planning programs shared by departments of health as well as ministries. At the international level we need to rectify the chronic underfunding for family planning assistance across the board.”

Contact: Associate Professor Colin Butler 02 6125 7175 colin.butler@anu.edu.au

Rod Quantock says, “If climate change doesn’t scare you, then you don’t get the science.” Fortunately Quantock does, and when he gives you his take on the physics, chemistry, biology, geology, palaeontology, cosmology and meteorology of climate science you’ll get it too. And then… you’ll be scared. It’s win-win. Sounds like great fun doesn’t? It’s an edgy mix of panic and hysteria. But that’s what you’d expect from someone whose comedy has been described as ‘medicinal’. In his irreverent style and clever humour has proven to be a great avenue to deliver powerful messages about the reality of climate change, water issues and possible outcomes.

Rod Quantock is one of the reasons that Melbourne is the live comedy capital of Australia. Rod began writing and performing comedy at Melbourne University in the late Sixties and graduated to Melbourne’s fledgling alternative nightspots in the early Seventies where he learned his craft and gained a reputation as a unique and pioneering comic talent, one he still retains 40 years later. When he is not working as a freelance writer, performer and speaker for the public, non-profit and private sectors, he is a prominent environmental, social and political activist. His most recent show was ‘Bugger the Polar Bears, This is Serious’.

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, registration essential. Please register attendance with ANU Events T: 6125 4144 or E: events@anu.edu.au

Introduced by Jon Ward, Manager, Environmental Policy Toyota Motor Corporation Australia

Hosted by: ANU College Physical Sciences and ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment

Date: Wednesday 21 October, 6-7pm

Venue: Lecture Theatre One, Manning Clark Centre, Building 26a, Union Court, ANU

Transport is a significant contributor to Canberra’s greenhouse gas emissions. With low urban density, Canberra has become highly car-dependent with low uptake of public transport.

• What are the dimensions of Canberra’s transport systems in relation to climate change?
• What role does urban design play and what room do we have to move here?
• How can the principles of ‘integrated transport’ best be realised?
• What can we do in the short term and how do we factor in longer term needs and possibilities?
• How can policy makers, planners, developers, business people and the community work
• together to improve our transport systems?

This Canberra Conversation will seek to unravel the complexities of this topic and stimulate innovative ways forward.

Speakers

Dr Janet Salisbury from A Chorus of Women and Professor Will Steffen from the ANU Climate Change Institute.

Information
See: http://www.chorusofwomen.org/

RSVP: hoffie@iinet.net.au

Photo: by Shin Yau Yeam - ANU Student entry in the Capture: Climate Change Impacts Photographic Competition.

Caption: Recycle is not quite the word to be used here but reuse is. While the scrap metal from the car is not recycled, it has instead became a home for some beautiful floras. And no one would argue that it talks a lot more time and effort to convert a car into a creative natural habitat than selling it off.

Professor Ross Garnaut was interviewed by Tony Jones from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Lateline current affairs program this week.  Speaking from China, after delivering a paper at a conference on the low carbon economy, Ross Garnaut discussed with Tony Jones the implications of climate change impacts on Australia, China and South East Asia.

See the Lateline video recording of Professor Garnaut’s interview with Tony Jones here.

Photo: (L to R) Prof Ross Garnaut (ANU), Prof Will Steffen (ANU), Prof Jiahua Pan (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) following the Australia-China Climate Change Forum held at The Australian National University (ANU) in March 2009.

Photo by: Mr Darren Boyd - College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU.

The global hydrological cycle links precipitation, evaporation, surface waters and atmospheric transports of water vapor.  Its behavior is crucially important to all life on Earth, including (and maybe particularly) human life.  It is generally agreed that global warming related to human-induced changes in atmospheric composition is underway, and that that warming will affect the elements of the hydrological cycle.  In this presentation, I will discuss the ways in which we can observe those elements, and compare the results to those obtained from global climate modeling studies and theoretical analyses.  I am particularly interested in comparing uncertainties in our observations to assumptions and simplifications in theory and models.

Lecturer
Dr Phillip A Arkin, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS) at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) of the University of Maryland

Biography
Dr Arkin is Director of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS) at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) of the University of Maryland, where he also serves as Deputy Director and Senior Research Scientist.  He conducts research into the observation and analysis of precipitation and other aspects of the hydrological cycle of the global climate system in addition to his administrative duties.  Until January 2002, he served as Program Manager for Climate Dynamics and Experimental Prediction in the Office of Global Programs at NOAA, where he managed the Applied Research Centers that provide the research and development that enable NOAA to provide better climate forecasts.  From 1998-2000, he served as the Deputy Director of the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) at Columbia University.  He spent 25 years working at NOAA as a research scientist and administrator in various parts of the climate community, including the Climate Prediction Center, the Office of Global Programs and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction.  He invented the GOES Precipitation Index, a method for estimating rainfall from geostationary satellite observations, and created the Global Precipitation Climatology Project and led it from 1985-1994.

Energy Politics:  Implications for Greenhouse Gas Reductions in developed and developing countries.

1-2.30pm, 16 October 2009, Theatrette, Old Canberra House.

Will ‘energy politics’ help or hinder efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developed and developing countries? Two experts with backgrounds in energy and climate change economics and policy highlight the critical issues as they are currently emerging.

Professor Stephen Howes of the ANU Crawford School of Economics and Government spent six years in India with the World Bank. In 2008 he worked on the Garnaut Climate Change Review. He will discuss India’s energy objectives, policies and politics, and where, if at all, climate change mitigation fits in.

Dr Hugh Saddler has many years experience as an energy strategy consultant in Australia and is Adjunct Professor at the ANU Crawford School and the Fenner School of Environment and Society. He will discuss the disjunction between energy and greenhouse emission policy objectives in Australia.

For further information consult the convenors:

Kate Bowan (kate.bowan@anu.edu.au) and Mary Hutchison (mary.hutchison@anu.edu.au)

For more information about Friday Forum and a list of upcoming events please go to:

http://rsh.anu.edu.au/events/seminars_forum_2009/ff/index.php

Photo: Bonn UNFCCC negotiations 2009. Photo by: Harriet Riley ANU Student