News from the Centre for Climate Economics & Policy
After the Paris agreement
The talk of the climate change community is the Paris climate agreement. ANU was represented by several academics and students at the COP21 conference. The overall assessment by colleagues and myself is a very positive one.
The ANU Climate Change Institute organised a post-Paris symposium (podcast linked), which attracted huge interest.
The Paris agreement puts in place high ambition and a five-yearly review cycle for national targets and action. Now the focus for many countries will turn to domestic implementation. For Australia this is expected to mean policy reform for climate change, and quite possibly also a stronger emissions target for 2030.
These will be interesting times for policy development and implementation. Researchers at ANU and the wider CCEP network will have much relevant analysis to contribute. We’ll also organise relevant events as we have in the past. The first of these will be a forum on electricity sector policy, planned for the afternoon of 18th February, details to come.
A note on sub-national policy on climate change, which recently has attracted renewed interest. Our Crawford School colleague Professor John Hewson, Ms Anna Skarbek of ClimateWorks Australia and I were called on to provide advice to the South Australian government, as members of the newly established Low Carbon Economy experts panel. Consistent with the panel’s recommendations, the SA government has announced a target of net zero emissions by 2050, with strong emphasis on renewable energy and on searching out opportunities in the transition to a low-carbon economy.
I look forward to staying in touch, whether electronically or in person at ANU or elsewhere.
