The Project focuses initially on at least four critical dimensions of vulnerability to climate change in the region: 1) water resources, 2) fire regimes, 3) health and social systems, and 4) governance, policy and legal aspects, and is based on two principal approaches:

• a partnership between the ACT and NSW governments and agencies and the University, also involving civil society and the private sector, and
• participatory development of  an interlinked physical/climatic, social and economic research and analysis effort, based on known vulnerabilities and adaptation to prior climate changes.

The study as a whole is designed to be strongly integrative, drawing on our national and international networks to adapt world’s best practice to the ACT&R.  The project has been split into two phases, the first of which has been funded by the ACT Government, with in-kind contribution from the NSW Government.  Phase 1 will provide a synthesis of past and present research on climate vulnerability and adaptation in the ACR, with a key goal to identifying critical knowledge gaps.  Phase 1 of the Project meets a number of the key objectives of the ACT Government as described in Weathering the Change: The ACT Climate Change Strategy 2007-2025.  Funding will be sought for Phase 2 of the project, which is intended to build a program of research activity focussing on the key knowledge gap areas identified in Phase 1.

The Project Reference Group consists of the ANU project team and key staff of the ACT Government Department of Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water (DECCEW) and the NSW Government [DPC and DECC].

The project team at the ANU consists of:

• Prof. Will Steffen (Executive Director, ANU Climate Change Institute)
• A/Prof. Janette Lindesay (Deputy Director, ANU Climate Change Institute)
• Dr Bob Webb (Convenor, Integration Studies, ANU Climate Change Institute and ACT&R Project Director)

For further information please contact:

Dr Bob Webb

T: + 61 (0)416216126 (mob)
E: Bob.Webb@anu.edu.au

A high level public forum on Australia, China and climate change will be held at ANU on Wednesday 15 April 2009. The forum will be hosted by the ANU China Institute, ANU Climate Change Institute, China Economy and Business Program and the East Asia Forum. It will provide an important opportunity for independent dialogue between Chinese and Australian experts on issues leading up to the United Nations COP 15 Copenhagen climate change conference in December 2009.

Registration for the forum will open in mid February 2009 via the ANU Climate Change Institute website events page.

Is there a technological fix that can solve the problem of climate change? What is the cost of not acting to mitigate climate change? Does climate change represent a threat to national and global security?

Join the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions on 10-12 March 2009. Thousands of experts within various fields of climate research from green technology, transport and energy to nature science, humanities, economics, law and security aspects of climate change will attend the Congress.

The Congress will provide a synthesis of the very latest, publicly available, scientific knowledge and technologies on climate change. The published findings (June 2009) will, after agreement with the Danish Government that is hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15), be handed over to the policy makers.

Who can participate?

Everyone can participate - scientists, politicians, companies, NGO’s, officials, assistants.

Who are the organisers?

The congress is organised by the University of Copenhagen in cooperation with the ’star alliance’ of the global university community, International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), including The Australian National University, ETH Zurich, National University of Singapore, Peking University, University of California, Berkeley, University ofCambridge, University of Copenhagen, University of Oxford, University ofTokyo and Yale University.

Who will speak?

Plenary speakers include the IPCC Chairman, Nobel Laureate Dr RK Pachauri; Lord Nicholas Stern, London School of Economics; Prof Ross Garnaut, The Australian National University; Director and Prof John Schnellburger, Potsdam Institute; Prof Dan Kammen, Berkley University; President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barosso; the Danish Prime Minister, MrAnders Fogh Rasmussen; the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Mrs Connie Hedegaard. See the full program…

Want to register?

See link below…

Sign up for the International Congress on Climate Change 10-12 March 2009

By Tom Skotnicki - The Canberra Times

A CANBERRA company is in talks with an Indian group to build what would be the largest solar plant in the world at an irrigation development in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Wizard Power, which is marketing technology developed at the Australian National University, is in negotiation for a solar plant five times as large as the world’s biggest plant at Nevada in the United States.

Read more…

To learn more about the Master of Climate Change see:

http://cmbe.anu.edu.au/cw/climate/

Photo: ANU students at UNFCCC CoP 13 Climate Change Conference - Bali, Dec 2007.

Climate change is rapidly becoming the defining challenge for humanity in the 21^st century. Dealing with climate change demands new types of knowledge – every bit as demanding and rigorous as traditional academic knowledge but more integrated and connected, and more closely linked to practitioners searching for solutions to the climate change challenge.

The ANU is in an exceptionally strong position to contribute to the generation of these new types of knowledge. The University’s strength in climate change research is its breadth – from fundamental climate science to economics, governance and law – and the quality and depth in these and other areas.

The CCI’s vision is to build and support a cohesive, interactive community of climate change-related researchers and teachers at the ANU.

Our mission is to contribute to climate change solutions through innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching, drawing on the wealth of expertise across the University’s seven colleges, and to connect our work to governments, the private sector and civil society.

On this site you’ll find a who’s who of climate-related research and teaching at the ANU, a description of our core capabilities, accounts of the new and exciting interdisciplinary projects being developed under the auspices of the CCI, the latest news on our activities, the CCI product portfolio, links to related sites in Australia and around the world, and much more.

We hope that you find our website informative and enjoyable. We welcome your comments and suggestions on our work, and on its presentation on this site.

Professor Will Steffen
Executive Director
ANU Climate Change Institute
Photo:  Will Steffen August 2008 - rock art,  Arnham Land