Academics report on 'exuberance and euphoria' of Paris

Cathy Alexander saw the Paris
agreement as a "game changer"
but could not foresee what the
Australian Government was about
to do in plumping for fossil fuels.

Our first Climate Conversation seminar for 2016 kicked off with a robust discussion from our academic delegates who attended the Paris COP21 climate conference.

 “There was exuberance, dancing on the stage, a sense of euphoria”, is how Peter Christoff describes the ambience when the gavel went down at the 2015 climate negotiations in Paris. The focus of Tuesday’s Climate Conversations, the first in MSSI’s 2016 schedule, was to reflect on the outcomes of the Paris conference and to dissect what was really achieved, what it means for Australia and the world, and how to progress from here. The expert panel consisted of four MSSI members, all of whom were on the ground in Paris, representing the University of Melbourne: Peter Christoff, Robyn Eckersley, Cathy Alexander and Don Henry. This post is a summary of the key issues raised by the panel.

Read the piece by Anita Talberg,  of the Australian-German Climate and Energy College, written for the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute - “After Paris—what now for climate policy and research?”

 

 

(“If you’re sniffing the wind, the trend of history is heading towards stronger climate action”. This was Cathy Alexander’s key message to Australian politicians.

She saw, “the Paris Agreement is a game changer for Australia, albeit a slow-burning one”, but she was not able to foresee the events of this week when the Australian Government retreated to its bunker and plumped for the fossil fuel industry.

The Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Christopher Pyne, announced creation of the Energy Resources Growth Centre aimed at driving innovation, competitiveness and productivity across the oil, gas, coal and uranium sectors.

The events and jubilation of Paris are worse than a fading memory, they have been totally forgotten – Robert McLean).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robyn Eckersley questions Australia's climate diplomacy

Robyn Eckersley - from the University of
Melbourne, who is presently in Paris.

The diplomacy could be cast in positive terms, on the surface at least.

During the first week of the climate negotiations in Paris, Australia displayed a preparedness to be flexible and serve as a broker of compromises in the negotiations over the draft Paris Agreement.

Australia has also declared its support for the inclusion of a temperature goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is a matter very dear to the hearts of Pacific Island nations for whom climate change is a fundamental existential threat.

Australia will serve as Co-chair (with South Africa) of the Green Climate Fund in 2016, which will be channelling money to the most vulnerable countries in the Pacific and elsewhere to enhance their preparedness for the harmful impacts arising from a much warmer world.

Read the report by the Professor and Chair of the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Robyn Eckersley, who is in Paris - “Australia’s climate diplomacy like a doughnut: empty in the middle.”

Desolation and destruction of democracy not an April Fool's Day joke

A

n observation today, on April Fool's Day that humans may face desolation in the Anthropocene may seem like a joke, but it’s not, Robyn Eckersley is deadly serious.

Prof Robyn Eckersley - she fears
 for democracy's future.

The Professor of Political Science in the School of Social and Political Sciences at University of Melbourne, has written about her concerns on The Conversation.

She writes; “The term Anthropocene has made many democrats nervous about democracy’s future. Earth scientists tell us we have drifted out of the Holocene into the Anthropocene. In this new epoch, humans are the dominant “geological force” shaping the Earth’s systems.”

Prof Eckersley said the 11,500 year-long Holocene has provided a relatively stable climate conducive to the emergence and development of human civilisation.

However, she added, “In contrast, the Anthropocene may be characterised by unpredictable and possibly abrupt and cataclysmic environmental changes.”

Her story - “Anthropocene raises risks of Earth without democracy and without us” – was published today.