Universities Australia

Universities Australia held a climate change forum at Parliament House, Canberra, on Thursday 18 March 2010.

The forum sought to answer these questions:

  • What are the signs of climate change in Australia?
  • How are agriculture, cities, and the environment already changing?
  • What will be the economic impact of responding to climate change? What will be the cost of doing nothing?

In these posts you will find a range of resources relating to the forum including: an overview, audio, slides and biographies.

Details and links are at http://www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/ua/what-happened.

What happened at the UA climate forum?

You can catch up on the Universities Australia Climate forum held at Parliament House, Canberra on 18 March 2010 through the following links:

Australia’s climate is changing

Universities Australia forum reveals how we are responding

Australia’s peanut farmers are on the move—some are relocating nearly 2400 kilometres from Kingaroy to Katherine for better access to water; last year 88 people in Victoria died in the way to hospital directly as a result of the heatwave that preceded the disastrous bushfires of early February; the average temperature across the Australian continent has risen by more than 0.8 °C in the past 60 years; the Great Barrier Reef is degrading; and more than 40 per cent of the nation’s farmers are seriously worried about the viability of their businesses in the face of climate change, according to a recent nationwide survey for the Bureau of Rural Sciences.

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UA Climate Forum – speakers


Prof. Peter Coaldrake

Universities Australia

Peter Coaldrake, the Chair of Universities Australia, is Vice-Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology (QUT), a position he took up in April 2003. He had previously been Deputy Vice-Chancellor in the same institution, and prior to that served for four years as Chair (CEO) of Queensland’s Public Sector Management Commission, the body established by the Goss Government to overhaul Queensland’s public sector.

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Universities Australia Chair welcomes climate snapshot

Universities Australia today welcomed the release of the State of the Climate Snapshot co-authored by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.

“This important statement from the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology confirms the clear view of top Australian scientists, expert in the field, that Australia’s climate is changing,” said Professor Peter Coaldrake, Chair of Universities Australia and Vice-Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology.

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Universities Australia Climate Forum

Climate Change: bridging scientific knowledge and public policy

Thursday 18 March 2010

The Mural Hall, Parliament House, Canberra, 8.30am – 12.30pm

Universities Australia is the peak body of all Australia’s universities and is committed to engaging with Parliament on issues of great national significance, and to informing social, political and commercial responses to those issues.

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