In conversation with Ross Garnaut

ANU/CANBERRA TIMES MEET THE AUTHOR

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ANU ZERO-CARBON ENERGY FOR THE ASIA-PACIFIC GRAND CHALLENGE AND THE ENERGY TRANSITION HUB

The case for a supply-side climate treaty

To reach the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming well below 2°C, substantial parts of the world’s fossil fuels simply cannot be combusted and must be left in the ground. This seminar examines how the Paris Agreement on climate change could be complemented by an international treaty among fossil fuel producing countries, aimed at restricting global supply.

The future of renewable energy: Germany’s energy transition, Australia and the ACT

What role will renewable energy play in the energy systems of the future? How will high shares of wind and solar power effectively be integrated into the grid, what does it mean for energy costs, and what role is there for policy to guide the transition? This forum will hear an analysis of developments in Germany.

Coal transition: power sector, regional adjustment and policy

Coal use will need to decline dramatically to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. In Australia, renewables are rapidly gaining in cost competitiveness with coal-fired power, and there is the prospect of structural decline in the market for thermal coal exports. This means challenges for power sector policy, and regional adjustment where coal plants close and activity in mining and transport of coal declines.

A clean planet for all — an European strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy

The European Commission recently presented its long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate-neutral economy by 2050. It highlights pathways for Europe to lead the way towards greenhouse gases neutrality by investing into realistic technological solutions, empowering citizens, and aligning action in key areas such as industrial policy, finance, or research – while ensuring social fairness for a just transition.

Coal, climate change mitigation and populism

In order to fulfil international climate targets, across the globe coal used in the energy sector will need to be phased out until mid-century, at the latest. This is at odds with current investment patterns. Many countries, particularly developing and newly-industrializing ones, continue to invest in coal fired power plants. Based on research conducted at the Mercator Institute of Climate Change and Global Commons, this talk will give an overview of reasons for current coal investments and why a phase out of coal is often difficult and needs to be designed carefully.

Carbon taxation in a fossil fuel-dependent economy: The case of Canada

It is a truism that carbon taxes are good policy but bad politics, as Australians know all too well. Yet despite the political challenge, some governments still adopt carbon taxes and most of those survive. The motivation for my current project is to understand the political conditions for adoption and survival of carbon taxes.

The cascading impact of disasters in a warming world

The recently released IPCC Special Scientific Report, “Global Warming of 1.5°C” highlighted the historically unprecedented scale of the changes required in energy, land, urban and industrial systems to achieve the 1.5 degrees limit and the enormity of the additional climate impacts we can expect if we are unsuccessful in doing so. As bad as the projected impacts are, the actual impacts may be significantly worse due to the likelihood that warming will generate cascading hazards on various temporal and spatial scales.

Revisiting the income elasticity of energy consumption: an OECD & non-OECD country panel analysis

Estimating the relationship between economic development and energy demand and determining whether that relationship changes as levels of development change have been popular questions in energy economics.

A vision for powering our electricity grid with energy storage

Energy storage is at the early stages of contributing significant changes to the structure and operation of the electricity system both in Australia and around the world. These changes are being driven by the diversity of energy storage technologies and its breadth of capabilities.