People and Climate Change - Science from Europe

People and Climate Change - Science from Europe

Monday, 8 September 2014 - 6:00pm to 7:30pm

When: Monday, 8 September 2014 from 6:00-7:30.

Where: Woodward Conference Centre, Level 10, Melbourne Law School, 185 Pelham Street, Parkville 3010  

To register, click here.

The University of Melbourne’s recently established European Union Centre on Shared Complex Challenges is holding a public forum on Monday 8 September to mark Climate Day, a joint day of climate action by the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany and France. 

Climate Day in Europe celebrates global efforts around the world in preparation for an ambitious, achievable and sustainable global deal on climate at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in Paris in November 2015.

Co-hosted with the Australian German College of Climate and Energy Transitions, the Melbourne Sustainable Societies Institute at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with the German Embassy, the Embassy of France and the British High Commission, the forum on ‘People and Climate Change –Science from Europe’ will feature the Australian launch of the UK Met Office report on the ‘Human Dynamics of Climate Change’ and two distinguished Australian climate scientists with German and French heritage.

Associate Professor Malte Meinshausen (Director, Australian-German College of Climate & Energy Transitions) will unpack the 5th report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and highlight its insights in relation to carbon budgets and future emission trajectories.

Dr Bertrand Timbal (Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research – a partnership between the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO) will outline the implications of global climate projections at a regional scale and the potential impacts for South-Eastern Australia.

Professor John Wiseman (Deputy Director, Melbourne Sustainable Societies Institute) will chair the forum followed by audience discussion. 

Speakers
Australian-German College of Climate & Energy Transitions

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. 

John Wiseman

John Wiseman is a Professorial Fellow with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and with the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. He is also a Research Fellow with the Centre for Policy Development, Sydney. John has worked in a wide range of public sector, academic and community sector settings including as Foundation Director of the McCaughey Centre, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne; Professor of Public Policy, Victoria University; and Assistant Director, Policy Development and Research, Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet.  The major focus of his current work is on the social and political transformations needed to reduce the risks of runaway climate change and achieve a rapid transition to a just and resilient post carbon future. 

Web tools and Projects we developed

  • Open-NEM

    The live tracker of the Australian electricity market.

  • Paris Equity Check

    This website is based on a Nature Climate Change study that compares Nationally Determined Contributions with equitable national emissions trajectories in line with the five categories of equity outlined by the IPCC.

  • liveMAGICC Climate Model

    Run one of the most popular reduced-complexity climate carbon cycle models online. Used by IPCC, UNEP GAP reports and numerous scientific publications.

  • NDC & INDC Factsheets

    Check out our analysis of all the post-2020 targets that countries announced under the Paris Agreement.