Professor Penny Sackett

Research highlights

Ten (will be eleven by end of calendar year) expert reports written in response to briefs from the Environmental Defenders Office regarding the greenhouse and climate implications of various fossil fuel developments in NSW, QLD and WA. These have been submitted to courts and development consent authorities.

Public policy initiatives

Submissions to: 

1. The Independent Review of Australian Carbon Credit Units
2. The Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee:      
   • Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Climate Trigger) Bill 2022
   • Inquiry into Climate Change Bill 2022 and Climate Change (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2022
     • Submission, Supplementary Submission, and appearance at associated public hearing

Education

• Invited to present special lectures on `Sound Science for Wicked Problems’ to ENVS 3020 and to PHYS 2205/6205
• Part of special Science and Society Panel for ENVS 1001

Outreach

• Hosted virtual event at National Portrait Gallery during Science Week

Media

• Does Labor plan to force the top 200 energy users and producers to cut emissions by 25%?, The Guardian, 14 April.
• Australia’s new government cements more ambitious climate change targets, Global Government Forum, 22 June.
• Conservation Council reignites greenhouse gas legal challenge to kill off Woodside’s Scarborough project, The West Australian, 2 August.
• Santos sanctions another new project incompatible with 1.5°C, Market Forces, 17 August. 
• No 'Duty of Care' but risks of climate litigation continue to grow - insights from the Sharma decision, Gilbert + Tobin, 21 March.

Dr Bec Colvin

Public policy initiatives

Dr Colvin is a member of the Australian Museum Climate Solutions Centre Advisory Group (https://australian.museum/learn/climate-change/climate-solutions-centre/).

Media

In 2022 Dr Colvin wrote an article for the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter entitled “In a puzzling trend, concern about climate change has plateaued" discussing issues of Climate Change in relation to the recent Australian election.

Dr Colvin's other media appearances have included:

• Australia will fight climate change after ten years of inaction, Spain's The Vanguard.
• Australians are googling climate change much more than during the last federal election, ABC News.
• Activists slam new anti-protest laws as ‘knee-jerk’ after three days of protests, The Sydney Morning Herald.

Education

The Master of Climate Change program has been re-classified to ‘multi-modal’ from 2023 onwards, meaning we can accommodate remotely enrolled students.

Garnaut Prize for the top achieving Master of Climate Change student went to Sally Wilson (Crawford via the world - Sally Wilson's study journey | Crawford School of Public Policy).

Professor Warwick McKibbin

Research highlights

• Bems R., Juvenal, L. Liu, W. and W.J. McKibbin (2022) “Climate Policies and External Adjustment”, Chapter 2 on International Monetary Fund External Sector Report:Pandemic, War and Global Imbalances, August 2022, IMF Washington DC.
• Liu, W., and W.J. McKibbin (2022), Macroeconomic Impacts of Global Demographic Change: The Case of Australia, Asian Economic paper, MIT Press.
• McKibbin W., M. Konradt and B. Weder di Mauro (2022) “Climate Policies and Monetary Policies in the Euro Area“ in P. Hartmann and Schepens, G. (2022) "Beyond the pandemic: the future of monetary Policy“ Conference Proceedings European Central Bank 2021 Sintra Forum, 29 September.pp200-238.
• Bertram C. Boirard A., Edmonds J., Fernando R., Gayle D., Hurst I., Liu W., McKibbin W., Payerols C., Richters O., Schets E., (2022) “Running the NGFS Scenarios in G-Cubed: A Tale of Two Modelling Frameworks”, NGFS Occasional Paper, Banque de France.

Outreach

The Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis hosted a major international workshop focussing on climate change “9th ANU Workshop on The Global Economy”, Washington DC, April 28, 2022.

Roshen Fernando

Research highlights

• Bertram C. Boirard A., Edmonds J., Fernando R., Gayle D., Hurst I., Liu W., McKibbin W., Payerols C., Richters O., Schets E., (2022) “Running the NGFS Scenarios in G-Cubed: A Tale of Two Modelling Frameworks”, NGFS Occasional Paper, Banque de France.
• Fernando, R., Liu, W. & McKibbin, W. 2022. Why climate policy scenarios are important, how to use them, and what has been learned. Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets Policy Brief. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution.

Public policy initiatives

PhD Internship: 

• Roshen was selected to attend the Fund Internship Program of the International Monetary Fund from June to August 2022. There, he worked at the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, evaluating the historical exposure of a global sample of multisectoral firms (~62k) to both chronic and extreme physical climate risks, and their historical sensitivity to those risks. Roshen also evaluated the global economic consequences arising from the exposure of those firms to future climate risks under three SSP scenarios.

 Seminars:

• Micro-founded Global Economic Impacts of Physical Climate Risks | QUANTM Seminar Series, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, The International Monetary Fund, 25 August 2022.
• Global Economic Impacts of Climate Shocks and Changes in Climate Risk Assessment | QUANTM Seminar Series, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, The International Monetary Fund, 27 July 2022.

Professor David Stern

Education

In 2022 Professor Stern convened the renamed course, Agricultural and Resource Economics (IDEC8018) for the first time. The course is a core requirement for the Masters of Environmental and Resources Economics but it wasn't taught in 2020 or 2021. This intiative is getting the program back on track post-pandemic.

The course provides training in the economics of natural resource management and an introduction to agricultural economics, introducing the key models and techniques of resource and agricultural economics with a particular focus on developing economies.