An information session will be held on Friday 27 November 2009 at 3.30 pm for the ANU delegates attending the UNFCCC CoP 15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.  The event will be held at Room 102 Forestry Building (48), Fenner School of Environment and Society, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment.

Presenters

Prof Will Steffen, ANU Climate Change Institute;

Prof Brendan Mackey, Fenner School of Environment and Society, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment;

Ms Elizabeth Peak, Australian Government Department of Climate Change;

Dr Janette Lindesay, Fenner School of Environment and Society, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment.

Light refreshments will be held after the briefing.

Note: This is an internal ANU event which is not open to the public.

Photo: City streets - Copenhagen March 2009

Some international commentators have expressed dismay that Australia is still debating climate change while other developed and developing economies have moved on and are already making positive steps towards climate change strategies. Is Australia out of step with the rest of the world? Who’s telling fibs and who’s providing facts about climate change in Australia? Have the Australian people switched off?

On 25 November 2009 at 12.30 pm the ANU Climate Change Institute will host the event Too Hot To Talk About: Why is Australia Still Debating Climate Change?  The event will be a Q & A style event zeroing in on how climate change is communicated to Australians - the spin, the noise, the clutter as well as the facts.

Participating in the event will be Crikey’s Canberra Correspondent Bernard Keane,  Dr Will Grant - Lecturer from the ANU Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Simon Grose – Canberra Press Gallery correspondent for Science Media, Dr onacloV - Artist and Lecturer from the Design Lab at University of Sydney and  award-winning author Tony Kevin.  Prof Will Steffen, Executive Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, will moderate the event.

The event will be live streamed on the Internet. Follow the link from the ANU homepage next week (www.anu.edu.au). You can interact with comments and questions on the Livestream page or through Twitter with the tag #climatedebate

The event is free and open to the public, but seating at the event is strictly limited. To reserve your seat contact ANU Climate Change Institute on 02 6125 56599 / http:www.anu.edu.au/climatechange

Listen to Dr Will Grant here.

(THE EVENT IS NOW BOOKED OUT - See instructions tomorrow on ANU homepage tomorrow morning to access live video-streaming of the event)

Videoconference Centre on the ground floor of the Peter Baume Building.  See map link for location:Building location 42a.

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.

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.

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

The ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, College of Physical Sciences, is conducting a Marine Science Symposium on Wednesday 30 September at the DA Brown Building 47 downstairs theatre.  The event is free and everyone is welcome to attend.  RSVP is not required. Sessions commence at 9.30 am

The keynote speakers is Professor Ross Griffiths from the Research School of Earth Sciences.

See program here: ANU Marine Science Symposium