News from the Centre for Climate Economics & Policy
Australia and China, new publications
Australia’s post-2020 emissions target is now expected to be announced in July. With Canada having announced its 2030 target, the comparison with North America will no doubt be an important consideration.
Another consideration in deciding the target ought to be the large body of analysis available on the costs of emissions reductions, and the choice of cutting emissions now or later. This month we published two reports that review the recent literature on the cost of emissions reductions, which found much interest among the policy community and also the media: 'Australia can cut emissions deeply and the cost is low' and 'Delaying climate action would be costly for Australia and the world'. The reports were prepared for WWF Australia, written by myself and Luke Kemp; the reports reflect our views, not those of any organisation. A working paper version of the reports is in preparation.
A recent highlight of our seminar series was the talk by Prof John Broome, philosopher and IPCC lead author, on 'Ethics in the IPCC process'. Click here for slides and audio recording of the seminar.
Let me also mention our Master degree courses on climate change policy that we teach at ANU Crawford School. I’m just finishing up with this year’s course 'Domestic climate change economics and policy'. In semester two, 'International climate change economics and policy' will be on offer, with a topical focus on the issues that will dominate the Paris COP conference. Both courses are available as part of the ANU Master of Climate Change degree and other Master degrees
