Empowering Women to Lead the Way in Climate Change Action

CLW's Expert Climate Panel

Introducing CLW's Expert Panel On Climate Change

To mark the Centennary of International Women’s Day in 2011, CLW aims to empower women to lead the way in tackling climate change action.

Through considering the science, government policies, best practice initiatives from individuals in Australia and abroad who are at the forefront of climate change research, analysis and policy making, CLW’s international multi-disciplinary Panel will empower women to develop an informed understanding of climate change and the reasons for action at a personal, social and political level.

Members who will be involved are:

§        Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and Strategies for the Global Environment , USA

§        Eva Cox AO, Sociologist, Political Adviser, Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development, Australia

§        Dr Andrew Ash, Director, Climate Adaptation Flagship, CSIRO, Australia

§        Steve Andrews, CEO, SolarAid, UK

§        Giselle Wilkinson, President, Sustainable Living Foundation, Australia

§        Ian Dunlop, Chairman of Safe Climate Australia & Deputy Convenor of the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil

As the Australian Parliament resumes debating the need for action on climate change, CLW invites women to influence action on climate change from an informed stand point of the scientific and moral imperatives for action and the solutions available to us to solve it.

A clean energy future should be about more than money

The Government’s equation for creating a prosperous and sustainable Australia includes four key factors: carbon price, renewable energy, energy efficiency and land use efficiency. But it is evident that the government is selling its response to climate change by focussing on the risk to Australia’s economic prosperity. Read More

Australia's new Carbon Price Legislation released in draft form is available here

Panelist's interviews will be featured here as the year progresses.

CURRENT INTERVIEWS

Interview with Dr Andrew Ash (November 2011)

Interview with Giselle Wilkinson (July 2011)

Interview with the Hon. Eileen Claussen (March 2011)

Interview with Eva Cox (March 2011)

Interview with Steve Andrews (May 2011)

Panelist's views on Gillards Proposed Clean Energy Policy for Australia

Panel members were asked: What are your views on what the Gillard government is attempting to put in place to reduce Australia's carbon emissions? Do you see it as providing a good transition plan to a to a net zero-carbon economy?

Giselle Wilkinson:

"The carbon tax would have been better expressed as a ‘fine on climate pollution’. Few decry the fining of container ships that dump their pollution out at sea while bringing us the goods we need and want. The same should apply to the deliberate polluting of the aerial ocean that encompasses our Earth and that we all share.

This ‘carbon tax’ is a positive, albeit tiny, first step that has opened the way for further, more powerfully effective measures. It has also put the wind in the sails of those working on clean technologies and social solutions and for the restoration of a safe climate future.

The Gillard government’s plan includes the decommissioning of 2000 megawatts of coal power which, with any luck, will mean the shutting down of the decrepit Hazelwood power station, indisputably Australia’s dirtiest and least efficient coal plant. However, since it’s at the end of its life anyway, it would be mad and setting a very bad precedent indeed to give in to the ridiculous claims for compensation from the owners who know full well it’s due for retirement anyway. Such money from the public purse would be far better spent on ensuring a just transition for the workers. Another grave risk in this package is that we may see this fossil fuel powered station being replaced by another one, gas or otherwise. The BZE Stationary energy report clearly demonstrates we have renewable energy options. The increasingly dangerous days of fossil energy are almost over.

If it is true that things get most dangerous when they’re in their death throes and we’re currently seeing a coal rush of frightening proportions happening in many parts of Australia, perhaps this can be seen as a good sign. A sign of imminent change. Around 80% of Queensland is under mining lease. NSW is similarly at risk of great destruction. Some of our most productive land, such as the Queensland Darling Downs with its up to 10 meters deep of rich topsoil, is being mercilessly fracked and mined right now. The Lock the Gate Campaign is gathering momentum to stop it. France has banned the devastating practice of coal seam gas fracking (the first country to do so) and other parts of the world are urgently instituting moratoriums, yet we here are going gangbusters to mine it, dig it up and ship it off as fast as possible before we’re stopped – as we know we will be.

The Transition Plan to a zero-net economy is not there yet. The Labor government now has a hung parliament and a strong Greens presence to deal with which is setting the scene for some meaningful action in this area at long last. However, they are setting targets of 80 per cent emissions reduction by 2050 which is way too late and not enough. The first 10 and 20 per cent will no doubt be the hardest anyway, after which the infrastructure, momentum and community acceptance will be in place to make the rest of the transition relatively easy.

We need our political leaders to pay close attention to the science; to the moves starting to be seen around the world; the evidence of the noticeably intensifying climatic events; the telling and record-breaking loss of Arctic ice this very year; and the growing concern in the community and among well-informed people that we have to move much, much faster.

Hans Joachim Schellenhuber, from the Potsdam Institute in Germany, and many others are stating unequivocally that we must peak our emissions by 2020 “in order to avoid the unmanageable”. He is saying this in the context of having a 60 to 70 percent chance of avoiding a 2 degree temperature increase. BZE talks about these odds being equivalent to playing Russian roulette with two bullets in the barrel. Not good odds.

I believe, as do a growing number of others, that we need to achieve zero emissions by 2020, to have begun to draw excess carbon out of the atmosphere to bring about the conditions we know give us a safe climate and we need to cool the already overheated planet.

What we need from the Gillard government is simply responsible risk management and good governance. We need our governments to be paving the way with intelligent community education campaigns, appropriate policy development now; and preparation for the pulling of the big levers (coal off, renewables on) to change direction, transition to clean energy and to, in effect, step-up to the need for whole systems change.

The time for incremental change is over. We now urgently need a rapid social and structural transformation on a massive scale. Underlying all our profligate energy use, rampant consumerism, retail therapy and huge waste, is our misplaced faith in a growth economy and the flawed concept that infinite growth on a finite planet is possible. We have to live within our limits. We need good government now more than at any other time in human history and we need proactive government to participate in the planning, already underway in the non-government sector, for a rapid transition to zero net economy.

The Gillard government is at least, and at last, providing a good first step to an urgently needed transition plan to a net zero-carbon economy. We need to congratulate them on this initiative, encourage much stronger measures and demand this critical transition be treated with the greatest urgency." (16 July 11)

Hon Eileen Claussen:

"The Gillard government is to be commended for placing such a high priority on climate change and working so hard to craft a workable solution. Experience and analysis show that an efficient and effective way to reduce pollution is to put a price on it. As we have learned through our own work in the United States, designing a pricing system for greenhouse gases is no simple matter. And each must be designed to fit the specific needs of a given country or jurisdiction. The government has offered a unique approach aimed at striking a reasonable balance between environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency while minimizing costs for taxpayers and carbon-intensive industries.

By beginning with a fixed carbon price, the proposal does not immediately offer the efficiency of an emissions trading system. But a set price rising gradually over three years provides industry with the certainty and predictability it needs to plan critical business investments. Wisely, the government is also proposing to recycle the revenues raised to ease the impact on trade-exposed industries and workers; boost investments in renewable power, energy efficiency and other low-carbon alternatives; and offer tax relief shielding consumers from cost impacts. According to the government’s calculations, many taxpayers would actually realize a small gain. Only Australians can decide whether the government’s proposal achieves an equitable distribution of effort. From a distance, it appears an honest attempt.

By planning to later transition to an emissions trading system, the government shows that it also understands the power of the market to deliver the greatest emission reductions at the lowest possible cost. A trading approach gives businesses not only the flexibility to choose how to meet their emission limits, but also an ongoing incentive to ferret out low-cost reductions. It provides a motive, in other words, to innovate.

As one of the world’s major economies and it highest per capita carbon emitter, it is important that Australia take a lead in addressing climate change. Australia is not going it alone. While at the federal level the United States has not yet taken decisive action, our states are moving ahead. California – with an economy more 50 percent larger than Australia’s – will launch its economy-wide cap-and-trade system in 2013. So will the four Canadian provinces of the Western Climate Initiative, with a combined population and GDP similar to those of Australia’s. Meanwhile, China, which is already taking a lead in the clean technology race, recently announced plans for regional pilot cap-and-trade systems with the aim of a national carbon market in 2015.

Taking action on climate change is not simple for any country. Australia’s Clean Energy Future Plan is a strong signal that Australia is willing and able to face the many challenges of addressing climate change, and in doing so, to be among the leading low-carbon economies of the future." (16 July 11)

Eva Cox:
"I am not an expert, but it is a start, and many experts seem to like it." (15 July 2011)

____________________________________________________________________________________________

The Panelists

Eileen Claussen

Hon. Eileen Claussen

Eileen Claussen is the President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and Strategies for the Global Environment. Ms. Claussen is the former Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

Prior to joining the Department of State, Ms. Claussen served for three years as a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Global Environmental Affairs at the National Security Council. She has also served as Chairman of the United Nations Multilateral Montreal Protocol Fund.

Ms. Claussen was Director of Atmospheric Programs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she was responsible for activities related to the depletion of the ozone layer; Title IV of the Clean Air Act; and the EPA’s energy efficiency programs, including the Green Lights program and the Energy Star program.

Ms. Claussen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Singapore Energy Advisory Committee, the Ecomagination Advisory Board, the Natural Gas Council, the Harvard Environmental Economics Program Advisory Panel, and the U.S. Commodity Future Trading Commission’s Advisory Committee. She is the recipient of the Department of State’s Career Achievement Award and the Distinguished Executive Award for Sustained Extraordinary Accomplishment. She also served as the Timothy Atkeson Scholar in Residence at Yale University.

Interview with the Hon. Eileen Claussen (March 2011)

Interview with the Hon. Eileen Claussen (March 2011)

Eva Cox

Eva Cox AO

Eva Cox was born Eva Hauser in Vienna in 1938, and was soon declared stateless by Hitler so grew up as a refugee in England, till 1946, Italy and then Australia from age 10. She remembers being cross in Kindergarten that boys were offered drums, and girls the tambourine or triangle. All these early experiences primed her political activism and made her an irrepressible advocate for making societies fairer. She is an unabashed feminist and passionately promotes inclusive, diverse and equitable ways of living together. She was the ABC Boyer Lecturer (1995) on making societies more civil. Her 1996 book (Leading Women) explained why women who made a difference were usually labelled as difficult, a label she wears. She has been an academic, political adviser, public servant, and runs a small research and policy consultancy. A sociologist by trade, she promotes ideas widely and eclectically in books, on line, in journals and other media. Eva has been recognised in various ways: Australian Humanist of the Year, a Distinguished Alumnus at UNSW and an Edna Grand Stirrer award. She also stirs through being a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development and as a Research Fellow at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning (UTS).

Interview with Eva Cox (March 2011)

Professor Steve Williams

Professor Steve Williams is the Director of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity & Climate Change Research (CTBCC) and the NCCARF National Adaptation Research Network - Terrestrial Biodiversity.

The NCCARF network is aimed at bringing together global change scientists across Australia to synthesise and collate research, prioritise future research directions and ultimately to minimize the impacts of climate change on terrestrial biodiversity. Professor Williams started the CTBCC in 2006 as a multidisciplinary research centre aimed at understanding the patterns and processes underlying tropical biodiversity and the impacts that global climate change will have on the natural environment. The CTBCC is currently examining a diverse range of research topics on climate change and biodiversity (vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and ecosystem processes) including biodiversity patterns and processes, population genetics, thermal physiology, paleo-modelling of habitats and species distributions, extinction proneness, phenology, nutrient cycling, climatic seasonality, trophic interactions, net primary productivity, vegetation structure, resilience and estimating the relative vulnerability of species and habitats.

Professor Williams' international reputation in research on biodiversity, climate change impacts and adaptation is demonstrated by:

§ Peer review citations (>3500): in the top 10 cited global change biologists in the world (ISI)

§ Director of National Climate Change Adaptation Research Network - terrestrial biodiversity (NCCARF)

§ Co-author (5 person team) of the Australian National Adaptation Research Plan for Terrestrial Biodiversity

§ Invited expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

§ Invited Review panel – CSIRO Division Sustainable Ecosystems review 2009

§ Board member – Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) advisory panels at the Regional (Wet Tropics Management Authority), State (QLD government), National (NCCARF, DEWHA - Vulnerability of Australia’s Biodiversity to Climate Change & National Reserve system planning, Birds Australia, TERN, Earthwatch Institute) and International levels (various IUCN, UNEP, DIVERSITAS climate change initiatives).

He has been awarded Earthwatch Institute 2007 Principal Investigator of the year for an “outstanding contribution to conservation research and public education;” The Wet Tropics Management Authority 2008 “Cassowary Award” for contributions to science in the field of biodiversity and global climate change and the JCU Faculty of Science & Engineering Deans 2009 award for “Excellence in Research.”

Dr Andrew Ash

Dr Ash leads the Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship which aims to equip Australia with practical and effective adaptation options to climate change and variability. As Flagship Director, Dr Andrew Ash is responsible for deciding research priorities, overseeing a large portfolio of research projects and managing many partnerships and collaborations. Dr Ash has over 20 years' experience in understanding how climate, grazing and fire influence the productivity and health of agriculture and ecosystems in northern Australia.

His research on sustainable grazing practices in the highly variable climate of the Australian rangelands prompted an interest in the techniques of seasonal climate forecasting. This led him to develop and apply ocean-based seasonal forecasting methods for both agricultural and natural resource management. With concerns increasing about the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, Dr Ash worked with colleagues at James Cook University to establish Australia's first Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment experiment (OZFACE) to test the response of tropical savanna ecosystems to elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. His most recent work has been on developing ways to more explicitly integrate our understanding of climate science with decision-making in broader contexts. To achieve this outcome Dr Ash has been driving a research approach that integrates biophysical, social and economic sciences and works in partnership with end users. Before taking on the current role of Flagship Director, Dr Ash was Deputy Chief for CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems (now Ecosystem Sciences).

Interview with Dr Andrew Ash (November 2011)

Steve Andrews

Steve Andrews, Chief Executive, is former Director and Chairman of leading charity marketing agency Whitewater. Steve has been closely involved in SolarAid since the charity was founded in 2006, assisting with strategy and marketing consultancy and helping to raise the profile of the charity. He has worked as a fundraiser for over 20 years, advising a number of development charities, including Christian Aid, Save the Children and WaterAid on marketing and fundraising strategies. Having built Whitewater up from a seven person company struggling to break even into a 45-strong £3 million company, he now leads SolarAid into its next stage of development.

Interview with Steve Andrews (May 2011)

Giselle Wilkinson

Giselle Wilkinson, President, Sustainable Living Foundation, Australia

Giselle Wilkinson is a social innovator who has been working to promote sustainable living in a full time capacity since co-founding the Sustainable Living Foundation (SLF) in 1999. As an author she has presented a paper, ‘Accelerating Sustainability’, to an international conference of the Australasia and the Pacific Extension Network and released a book on sustainable living and food, packaged to reach a mainstream Australian audience. She is currently undertaking a Doctorate in ‘Mobilising Whole Communities to Restore a Safe Environment’.

Giselle maintains her commitment focussing on ways to galvanise individuals and whole communities to respond appropriately to the sustainability emergency. She does this through her involvement with SLF as President; with Safe Climate Australia as a founding Board Member; as a Board member of the Climate Emergency Network; through public speaking; and by facilitating an ‘affordable / sustainable’ Cohousing rental development for 18 households in Heidelberg, Melbourne to be completed by the end of 2010.

The overarching conviction driving Giselle’s work stems from her knowledge that the next ten years are crucial if a safe climate is to be restored. Her inspiration comes not just from a desire to avoid a human and planetary catastrophe but also from a vision of an achievable, community initiated transformation – a sustainability renaissance. To that end, she has been part of a recent move establishing an alliance to campaign for a Transition Decade enabling the restoration of a safe climate.

Interview with Giselle Wilkinson (July 2011)

Ian Dunlop

Ian Dunlop has wide experience in energy resources, infrastructure, and international business, for many years on the staff of Royal Dutch Shell. He has worked at senior level in oil, gas and coal exploration and production, in scenario and long-term energy planning, competition reform and privatization.

He chaired the Australian Coal Association in 1987-88. From 1998-2000 he chaired the Australian Greenhouse Office Experts Group on Emissions Trading which, under the Howard government, developed the first emissions trading system design for Australia. From 1997 to 2001 he was CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Ian has a particular interest in the interaction of corporate governance, corporate responsibility and sustainability.

An engineer from the University of Cambridge, he is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Energy Institute (UK), and a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME (USA).

He is Chairman of Safe Climate Australia, Deputy Convenor of the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil, a Director of Australia 21and a Member of The Club of Rome. He advises and writes extensively on governance and sustainability.