Prospects for Green Growth

Micheal Smith will talk on Prospects for a Green Growth in Canberra, 6 September 2007:

The Fenner School Lecture

6th September 2007

Prospects for a Green Growth: Advancing and Resolving the “Growth” Debates

Micheal Smith Departmental Visitor, Fenner School for Environment and Society, Australian National University. Research Director, The Natural Edge Project (Hosted by Griffith University and ANU).

Over the last year there has been a significant shift in the debates about climate change and water issues in Australia. Thanks significantly to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, decision makers and citizens understand the need to achieve the IPCC’s recommended target of at least 60% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 . Al Gore outlined well the moral, humanitarian and security reasons for action on climate change. However he did not discuss the economics of climate change. There is still significant resistance globally in many nations to signing up to a Post Kyoto Framework largely due to fears on how it will effect economic growth. Both major political parties in Australia have failed to commit to short term greenhouse targets for Australia due to fears of harming economic growth. This talk will start by showing that such fears are unfounded. There is now a wealth of literature showing that deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved whilst maintaining strong economic and jobs growth. These studies show that economic growth can be significantly decoupled from greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. ...

The Fenner School Lecture is held in the Seminar Room, Level 6,
Hancock Building West (43), Biology Place, ANU.
(Take lift to Level 5, then take stairs to Level 6)
The seminar will start at 12:00 and finish at 13:00