In this climate, energy & the environment research cluster snapshot, Neil Gunningham, Darren Sinclair, Christian Downie and Chacko Thomas will discuss their current research projects, future interests and opportunities for collaboration.

Neil Gunningham

Neil has been involved in four research areas: empirical study of climate activism through the lens of social movement and non-state governance theory; preliminary work on the role of green finance in the Asia Pacific; contributions to the final report of the Australian Panel of Experts on Environmental law; and ongoing work on compliance and enforcement in environmental law. He will provide a snapshot of his work in these areas.

Darren Sinclair

Darren is a DECRA Research Fellow. His project, Regulation and governance for the sustainable management of groundwater, aims to manage groundwater through analysing six national and international case studies. Darren represented Australia at the United Nations International Framework Convention on Climate Change (Geneva 1993 and 1994) and co-designed the self-regulatory and trading scheme to phase out the use of ozone-depleting gases under Australia’s commitment to the Montreal Protocol. He has published widely on environmental governance, regulation and policy, and mining occupational health and safety regulation and policy. He has also worked as a consultant to government and industry.

Christian Downie

Christian’s research focuses on global energy and climate policy and the role different actors (governments, business and civil society) play at different levels to shape global outcomes. He works at the intersection of global governance, negotiation studies and environmental politics. Christian will provide a snapshot of his work across 3 projects: global climate policy; US energy policy and his future work on the role of the G20 in global energy governance.

Chacko Thomas

Chacko is an electrical engineer, with master’s degrees in energy studies, and environmental law. He has over 13 years’ experience, having provided consulting services across a wide range of sectors, including mining, oil and gas, commercial buildings, government departments and city councils. His experience includes energy and energy systems, energy efficiency, lighting, air, liquid and waste emissions and GHG inventory development, development and implementation of environmental management and regulatory compliance reporting systems, and disaster and risk management. At ANU, Chacko’s interdisciplinary research aims to understand the challenges in implementing a shared framework for making environmental data available, accessible and (re)usable to help inform air and water regulation across jurisdictions.