Fellow Fiona Armstrong hosts health and climate round-table at Parliament House

Fiona Armstrong.

Fiona Armstrong will host a leadership event and round-table discussion in Canberra tomorrow (Monday, October 10).

Fiona, the Executive Officer of the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) and a Fellow with the Centre for Policy Development (CPD) will lead discussions between health sector leaders and prominent Parliamentarians from all sides of politics.

 

Recently, Fiona was also name among Australia's top 100 most influential women.

This will be Australia’s first meeting to discuss the emerging threats to health resulting from climate change.

The CAHA, a grouping of health professionals dedicated to affecting climate change policy, was founded by Fiona, will take its concern for climate change and carbon emissions directly to MPs.

The alliance is hoping that tomorrow’s meeting will send a strong message to Australia’s wider health and medical community.

Read the Centre for Policy Development (CPD) release - “Fellow Fiona Armstrong hosts health and climate round-table at Parliament House.”

Local Government must take the climate change baton

 

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ith the Conference of the Parties (COP-21) session in Paris fast approaching, the issue of climate change is about to be centre-stage on the global policy agenda.

Australian citizens can be forgiven for being pessimistic in the lead-up to COP-21; many remember the way in which the 2009 conference in Copenhagen saw several countries at loggerheads and the chances of a comprehensive, binding global agreement on climate change substantially undermined.

Australia’s major political parties continue to wage war over their favoured public policy response, as well as the degree to which they believe the science. Rigid partisanship and petty politicking have undoubtedly tainted the issue of climate change in Australia and have left those who care about the issue feeling deflated and disheartened.

However, Australians can find a great deal of encouragement, optimism and hope by examining climate policy outside the confines of Canberra. Local government is fast becoming a climate change leader in both the national and international spheres. Australia is home to a range of proactive local councils which are taking the issue into their own hands and combatting climate change regardless of the stalemate currently seen at the federal level.

Read Matthew Bowron’s story on the Centre for Policy Development (CPD) website  - “Climate change through a sub-national lens”.

Bowron is a CPD research intern and holds a Master of Public Policy. He is the author of CPD’s scoping paper ‘Global Problem, Local Solutions’.

 

 

Defence climate change oversight is critical

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ustralia's failure to address climate change will cause a significant national security threat, according to a report by the Centre for Policy Development.

Ignoring climate change
 is a critical oversight
 - Prof Kate Auty.

The report, called The Longest Conflict: Australia's Climate Security Challenge, says Australia's Defence Force is underprepared for climatic events like extreme heat, rising sea levels and more frequent natural disasters.

It warns of escalating regional tensions over food and growing numbers of internally displaced people and refugees.

A report in the Melbourne Age says that a new Defence white paper is due later this year, but senior Defence officials told the Centre for Policy Development climate change is unlikely to be seriously addressed.

Those aware of the dangers arising from climate change, among them Victoria’s former Environment Commissioner and now a Vice Chancellors Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Professor Kate Auty, believe ignoring climate change and its impacts is a critical oversight.

Read The Age story - “Climate change: Longest Conflict Report warns Defence Force underprepared”.

Discussion at University of Melbourne in June about climate change and national security

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wo of the world’s leading experts will launch of the Centre for Policy Development’s (CPD) report examining climate change and Australia’s national security

In May this year, President Obama acknowledged something that is fast becoming conventional wisdom in the United States and around the globe: that climate change is a threat to national security.

CPD’s report is an important contribution to the national policy debate about how we prepare Australia for the coming security impacts of climate change, and how our defence force must adapt to continue to secure our peace and stability.

The UK Government's former Climate and Energy Security EnvoyRear Admiral Neil Morisetti, and the former chief of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Admiral Chris Barrie.

Former chief of the Australian
Defence Force (ADF), Admiral
 Chris Barrie.

Rear Admiral Morisetti - he
will launch the report.

Rear Admiral Morisetti will launch the report with a keynote address.

Admiral Morisetti is the UK Government's former Climate and Energy Security Envoy and an expert on climate security and its effects on international relations and the military. 

This will be followed by a panel discussion with Admiral Morisetti and Admiral Barrie.

The launch will be held on Monday, June 22 at 6:00pm in Theatre 1 on the ground floor at 111 Barry St, Carlton, University of Melbourne.

Burning science books didn't work then and it doesn't work now - Dunlop

Ian Dunlop writes about how the burning of science books didn’t work in the past and is not working today.

A former international oil, gas and coal executive and chair of the Australian Coal Association and CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Mr Dunlop is critical of the Abbott Government for its taking of “anti-science” stance to new heights.

In an article published by the Centre for Policy Development he said: “Its “scorched earth” approach discards virtually everything not in line with narrow, free-market ideology, centred on sustaining Australia’s 20th Century “dig-it-up and ship-it-out” economic growth model”.

Mr Dunlop is a member of the Club of Rome, a Director of Australia21 and a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development.

His article is headed: “Burning the science books. Didn’ t work then, won’t work now”.

Shepparton health forum speaker writes on CPD website

Convenor and secretary of The Climate and Health Alliance, Fiona Armstrong, is one of three speakers who will address Slap Tomorrow’s climate change and community health forum in March.

 

She has written about “Australia’s abundant energy and opportunities for future wealth and health” on the Centre for Policy Development’s website.

“Unlike many other countries, Australia has no significant climate policy.

“Efforts to introduce a lacklustre emissions trading scheme have failed, and apart from some minor policies, Australia has no significant policy agenda to contribute to the global effort of stemming our relentless rise in greenhouse gas emissions, or to draw down our legacy of excess carbon dioxide (CO₂), as we are warned we must,” she wrote.

The Climate and Health Alliance is a national charity that is an alliance of organizations and people in the health sector working together to raise awareness about the health risks of climate change and the health benefits of emissions reductions.