Thursday 14 May 2009

1-2pm, in Fenner School's Forestry Lecture Theatre

That adapting to climate change is easy, up to a point

Professor Steve Dovers, The Fenner School of Environment and Society

Download Steve's seminar (PDF, 184kb) Hear MP3 of seminar (MP3, 25MB)

Abstract

We have seen recently a big shift in climate change debates, from a (necessarily) science-led debate over whether and by how much change would occur, to a discussion of what should be done. This invites contributions from a wider range of disciplines and other knowledge systems, and attention to scales that match human decision making rather than the resolution of climate models. Mitigation debates, dominated by a limited menu of policy instruments, are politically fraught, but should agreement (miraculously) be obtained, the way forward is comprehensible. Adaptation is altogether a messier task, across a bewildering array of environments, socio-economic contexts, sectors, jurisdictions, climate impacts, capacities, etc. Current adaptation literature is strong on generalities, instructions about the ends of policy change, and random examples, but thin on the means to these ends and available strategies.

I will try and make a practical contribution here, and redirect thinking about (at least near term) adaptation. For Australia, is adapting to climate change going to be: (i) more of the same for a society that should be used to living in a variable climate; (ii) more than that, but still within our intellectual and institutional capacities; or (iii) a challenge beyond these capacities? What do we already know we should do? In as much a provocation as a seminar, I will prosecute the case that we have well-understood and available adaptive strategies that would collectively, across a variety of sectors and issues and justifiable on non-climate grounds, equal a very believable adaptation strategy. Would that be enough? Probably not - hence the sub-title "up to a point" - but might we get halfway or more, quickly? The argument will be general, but examples from a range of sectors will be used to suggest that the prospect of ripe low-hanging fruit should be the first stop in adaptation policy, and that current flux over claimed or excused practical and policy responsibilities might thus be better comprehended.      

Bio

Professor Steve Dovers is Director, Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, The Australian National University. His recent works include the books Institutional change for sustainable development (with Robin Connor, Elgar 2004), Environment and sustainability policy (Federation Press 2005) and The handbook of disaster and emergency policies and institutions (with John Handmer, Earthscan 2007) and the edited volumes Managing water for Australia (with Karen Hussey, CSIRO 2007) and The ten commitments (with Lindenmayer, Morton and Harris-Olson, CSIRO 2008). He is associated with the national climate adaptation research networks covering social science, disasters, and settlements.

The Fenner School Seminar Series is held in the Forestry Lecture Theatre, Forestry Building 48, Linnaeus Way (comes off Daley Road), ANU (Acton) campus, ACT

The seminar will start at 13:00 and finish at 14:00