Model UN in German Conference, The Heat is on: Climate Change and the Environment.
The United Nations Association of Australia (Victorian Division), the Department of Education and Training and the Association of German Teachers in Victoria are holding the first Model United Nations Conference in German in Australia on Tuesday 2 June. Hosted by the Australian-German College of Climate and Energy Transitions, the conference will bring together Victorian Year 11 and 12 students learning German to debate on The Heat is On: Climate Change and the Environment.
Conference Details
Date: Tuesday 2 June, 2015
Time: 9.00am for 9.30am start to 3pm (student delegates should aim to arrive by 9am)
Venue: Australian-German College of Climate and Energy Transitions, The University of Melbourne, Seminar Room, Ground Floor, LAB-14, 700 Swanston St (Corner Grattan/Swanston streets – enter via Swanston Street). View map
Participants: Year 11 and 12 students learning German
Topic: Climate Change and the Environment
Cost: Free
Catering: Morning tea and lunch will be provided
RSVP Deadline: 5pm, Friday 6 March (Registrations are now closed)
Guest Speaker: A/Prof Malte Meinshausen, Director of the Australian-German College of Climate and Energy Transitions & Alexander Nauels, PhD Student, Climate & Energy College.
A/Prof Malte Meinshausen is Deputy Academic Convenor of the College at The University of Melbourne since 2012 and is affiliated with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany. He holds a PhD in "Climate Science & Policy", a Diploma in "Environmental Sciences" from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and an MSc in "Environmental Change and Management" from the University of Oxford, UK. Before joining the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in 2006, he was a Post-Doc at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. He has been a contributing author to various chapters in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR4). Until May 2011, he was leading the PRIMAP ("Potsdam Real-Time Integrated Model for probabilistic Assessment of emission Path") research group at PIK before relocating to Melbourne. Since 2005, he is a scientific advisor to the German Environmental Ministry related to international climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC. Since 2014, he investigates methods to derive future climate targets for Australia in the context of a Future Fellow ARC project.
Alexander Nauels completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2017, where he synthesized knowledge about multi-centennial sea level rise projections. He is now Scientific Advisor at Climate Analytics, Berlin. Alex studied Geography in Berlin and Climate Science in Bern. Before starting his PhD project in Melbourne he worked at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I Technical Support Unit during the Fifth Assessment cycle. Alex draws on his work experience to develop research questions related to changes in climate systems that potentially have severe societal consequences. He hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the physical implications of different climate futures.
PhD Project: Synthesizing uncertainties of transient sea level rise projections
This PhD project is based on the development of a new sea level module for the MAGICC simple climate carbon cycle model. The module will include the most important sea level drivers and project sea level up to the year 2300. The calibration of the individual sea level components thermal expansion, glacier, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and land water storage components is going to be based on the latest available process understanding and data. A probabilistic framework will be introduced to provide a thorough uncertainty assessment of respective long-term projections. The sea level module will be applied to investigate multi-centennial sea level responses to selected emission pathways and the implications of delayed mitigation action for physical sea level rise impacts. In addition, uncertainties and thresholds inherent to Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet contributions to sea level rise may be analysed as well as the potential to implement potential scaling methods for regional sea level signals.
Supervisors: A/Prof Malte Meinshausen, Prof. David Karoly
German Supervisors: Anders Levermann, Matthias Mengel
Start Date: October 2013 Completion: 2017
Contact: alexander.nauels@climate-energy-college.org