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Photo: Prof Jiahua Pan and Mr Robert Owen-Jones

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

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

 Climate Change Special Edition

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.

Plenary speakers will be Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, Lord Nicholas Stern, Mrs Connie Hedegaard-Danish Minister of Climate and Energy, Prof Dan Kammen -University of California-Berkeley, Prof Diana Liverman-Oxford University, Prof William D Nordhaus-Yale University, Prof Stefan Rahmstorf-Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Prof John Schnellnhuber - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Abstracts

Abstract submission closure is 1st November 2008.

For further information see: ANU Climate Change home page - IARU

“Our destiny is sealed,” he said, adding that the only options available to his people were to “drown or be relocated”.

The President objected to his people being labelled environmental refugees, saying that the term came with a stigma that robbed the I-Kiribati of dignity.

He lamented the fact that the plight of polar bears in a changing climate received more media attention than Islander peoples, but said he was hopeful that the people of Kiribati would be able to relocate and integrate into receptive countries around the Pacific Rim.

President Anote Tong spoke at the Fenner School of Environment and Society on 19 June. He was welcomed by climatologist Associate Professor Janette Lindesay, Earth-systems scientist Professor Will Steffen, and forestry expert Professor Peter Kanowski.

Dr Richard Tanter is Professorial Fellow in International Relations at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Senior Research Associate at the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability.

At the Nautilus Institute he coordinates ‘Austral Peace and Security Net’, the Australian Forces Abroad briefing book series, and the Climate Change and Reframing Australia-Indonesia Security project.

Dr Tanter has worked on peace, security and environment issues in East and Southeast Asia as an analyst, policy advocate and activist since the 1970s.

From 1989-2003 he was Professor of International Relations at the School of Environmental and Social Studies at Kyoto Seika University in Japan. After returning from Japan in 2003, he was senior Curriculum Consultant to Deakin University for its Security Studies graduate program at the Australian Defence College’s Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies.

His research is focused on militarisation and peace issues in Indonesia, Korea and Japan, as well as in the wider East and Southeast Asia.

Conference: Drought – Past & Future

Date: Friday 14th November (9am to 6pm); Saturday 15th November 2008 (9am to 12noon)

Venue: Hedley Bull Centre, ANU

Website: http://www.water.anu.edu.au/events/dpf/index.php

Program details: http://www.water.anu.edu.au/pdf/ANUWI_conference.pdf

Register: RSVP to Noel Chan <noel.chan@anu.edu.au> by 12 November.

This conference is the first stage of an international project funded by the ANU Water Initiative (ANUWI) that will compare drought management and planning for climate change in the world’s southern and northern temperate zones - southern Australia, southern Africa, southwest US, the Mediterranean rim (Portugal, Spain and Turkey), northern China and South America. The conference will present some of the work relevant to the Australian region and discuss the themes to be investigated in the larger project.

Conference Themes:

·          Knowledge – what has been the understanding of drought and climate variability in Australia over the past two centuries?

·          Australian drought policy – what are the recurring issues?

·          Political, economic and social risks – how have these been defined and managed in the context of droughts?

·          Contemporary case studies of Australian drought management- what do they reveal about the interactions between communities and droughts over the past two centuries?

• Australian drought management from an international perspective

Speakers on Friday 14 November

Dr Sara Beavis, Fenner School, ANU

Bruce Campbell, River Murray Water, Murray-Darling Basin Commission

Dr Tony McLeod, Murray-Darling Basin Authority

Dr Daniel Connell, Crawford School, ANU

Professor Quentin Grafton, Crawford School, ANU

Professor Brian Head, Institute of Social Science Research, University of Queensland

Professor Douglas Fisher, Dept of Law, Queensland University of Technology

Dr Nicole Graham – Dept. of Law, Macquarie University

Professor Tony McMichael, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU

Dr Linda Botterill, Research School of Social Sciences, ANU

John Reid, Fenner School, ANU

Dr Sue Jackson, Tropical Ecosystem Research Centre, CSIRO

Dr Jane Doolan, Office of Water, Victorian Dept of Sustainability and the Environment

Dr Roger Pulwarty, National Integrated Drought Information System, NOAA

Speakers on Saturday 15 November

Dr John Williams, Commissioner Natural Resources Commission New South Wales

Professor Xia Jun, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing

Dr Rosalind Bark, Dept of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona

Dr Jeff Loux, University of California

Professor Rodrigo Maia, University of Porto, Portugal

Dr Karen Hussey, National Europe Centre, ANU

Prof Stephen Dovers, Fenner School, ANU

Attendance is free of charge. Please RSVP to Noel Chan, ANUWI administrator, at:- noel.chan@anu.edu.au and indicate whether you will attend both Friday and/or Saturday conference. Further enquiries to Dr Daniel Connell at: - Daniel.Connell@anu.edu.au

Climate change is not just an issue of higher temperatures and sea-level rise, but of flow-on effects throughout the climate system, in particular changes in rainfall patterns. Indonesia can expect longer dry seasons and shorter but more intense wet seasons. That means greater risk of flooding and droughts. Agricultural growing patterns will change, and with that come risks to regional food security.

Sea-level rise can cause sea-water inundation, with damage to agricultural growing areas and urban infrastructure. Higher temperatures worsen the spread of water- and vector-borne diseases, and have direct health effects through increased heat stress. Impacts are expected to differ strongly between regions. In some ways climate change could be beneficial, but overwhelmingly the impacts disrupt established systems.

Adapting to climate change in Indonesia will be important for continued development and economic prosperity. Infrastructure will need upgrading, from transport networks to flood defences. Improvements will be needed in public health, emergency management, agricultural extension, urban planning and so forth.

This article by ANU academic Dr Frank Jotzo  first appeared in Inside Indonesia. For the complete Inside Indonesia article see: http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/1007/47/