The Government’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has met with bitter resistance from the Opposition and recently been the subject of intense negotiations. Overshadowing the Government’s scheme are lingering questions of what Australia will bring to the table at December’s UN Climate Change Conference and the prospect of a double dissolution.

With the ETS to be debated in the Senate make sure you are fully informed of the economic, political, environmental, legal and scientific issues by talking to the following ANU academics. They are available for expert comment and analysis as the debate unfolds.

Download here: ANU ETS Expert List

 

Follow the links to access Professor Will Steffen’s latest climate change reports.

Climate Change 2009. Faster Change and More Serious Risks by Professor Will  Steffen

Synthesis Report - Climate Change Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions, Copenhagen 2009 10-12 March Conference.

Nature article: Planetary Boundaries The Human Race Should Not Transgress

Individuals and communities wishing to access climate change information should see Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences - A Guide for Individuals and Communities, prepared by the USA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation. Download the report here: Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences - A Guide for Individuals and Communities

Photo: Solar Station by ANU Student Xin Qiao Dong

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 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

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 head of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at The Australian National University has congratulated two Indigenous communities from northern Australia on the announcement today and tomorrow of new Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) covering 20,000 sq kms of the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust that are contiguous with World Heritage Kakadu National Park.

Professor Jon Altman heads the ANU-led project People on Country, Healthy Landscapes and Indigenous Economic Futures, supported by the Sidney Myer Fund. Project partners include Warddeken Land Management Limited and the Djelk Rangers and the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation.

“My colleagues at ANU and I congratulate the Warddeken and Djelk traditional owners on the declaration of two new Indigenous Protected Areas,” Professor Altman said. “This voluntary declaration will make an addition of immense environmental and cultural value to the Australian National Reserve System. Accepting the challenge of managing these IPAs to international conservation standards, the Warddeken and Djelk rangers will enhance global biodiversity.

“These initiatives fly in the face of much rhetoric from Canberra and Darwin about development failure and the need to ‘Close the Gap’ by engagement in mainstream industry or labour migration. The unorthodox ‘third way’ being promoted here challenges such approaches. It is predicated on living on country and utilising Aboriginal labour and knowledge, turns remoteness to locational advantage, and demonstrates that the theory of comparative advantage applies in remote Arnhem Land as elsewhere in the world. By providing livelihood opportunities on country, the enormous challenges of improving Aboriginal well-being and health and education are being practically addressed.

“There are big new challenges ahead for these contiguous IPAs that cover a massive environmental estate. Not only will rangers need to maintain the environmental condition of these IPAs, but climate change and possible salt water intrusion will threaten biodiversity. Global warming will provide opportunity to enhance the carbon abatement contributions of the world-renowned West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) project.

“Through their active collaboration with Western scientists and non-Indigenous partners, Warddeken and Djelk traditional owners are mobilising their cultural, social and natural capitals in the national interest and to ensure viable livelihoods for current and future generations. Both IPAs are located in remote regions dotted with small outstation communities distant from mainstream economic opportunity. Innovative partnerships are resulting in the creation of employment and income generating activity in the provision of a suite of environmental services including carbon abatement, feral animal and exotic weed management, coastal patrols and the protection of rock art sites of cultural significance.

“Today’s naysayers might, with time, recognise that what is undertaken here is an innovative model that combines the market, the customary and the state in a risk-minimizing economic diversification strategy. One size does not fit all, but this quiet revolution in western Arnhem Land might provide guidance to others seeking alternate livelihood options elsewhere on the massive Indigenous estate that covers 20 per cent (1.5 million sq kms) of Australia.”

Photo courtesy of Professor Jon Altman. Photo: Djelk Rangers in Central Northern Arnhem Land, Australia.

For interview: Professor Jon Altman 0419 223 757 Media assistance: Simon Couper 0416 249 241