GreenCollar Think Tank

Event Report – A panel discussion on the role of media in the climate change debate

Kristina — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:23:57 +0000

On November 16, the GreenCollar Think Tank hosted a panel of experts from academia, business, the media and legal profession in the area of climate, carbon trading and CFI/REDD methodology to discuss the media’s impact and whether the Australian media has an agenda to influence the public discussion on climate change.

On the panel were [...]

Event Report – A debate on climate action

Kristina — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:03:16 +0000

On the day the Clean Energy Act was passed in the Australian Senate, 8 November 2011, an Oxford-style debate discussing whether any action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by Australia is irrelevant until there is a significant global agreement for action that includes China, India and the USA was held as a highlight of the [...]

Event Report: a clean transport debate held at EcoGen 2011

Jan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:33:05 +0000

“All-battery vehicle platforms alone will go all the way to deliver a large-scale shift of personal transport to electric”.

On 6 September, at ECOGEN Conference in Brisbane, QLD an Oxford-style debate discussing the future of clean transport was held as a highlight of the conference.

The affirmative team consisted of Dan Kammen, Chief Technical Specialist [...]

Event Report: “Austerity Britain – climate ambition in tough economic times”

Vivian — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:13:00 +0000

Presented by John Virgoe, First Secretary for Climate Change and Economics, British High Commission

21 September 2011, Sydney

In September 2011, the principle climate change and economic adviser to the British High Commissioner presented on ambition in climate change policy in the UK throughout challenging economic times.

John Virgoe discussed Britain’s long [...]

Event report: Andrew Hewett of Oxfam Australia on Food Security

Vivian — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:27:26 +0000

“Why, in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everybody, are people going hungry in the 21st century?”

On 3 August, Oxfam Australia Executive Director Andrew Hewett spoke on Oxfam’s recently published report Growing a better future: food justice in a resource-constrained world and reflected on Australia’s responsibility within the context of [...]

Event Report: Bob Carr – Environmental Policy in the New NSW Government

Vivian — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:33:22 +0000

Highlights of Bob Carr on Environmental Policy in the New NSW Government from GreenCollar ThinkTank on Vimeo.

Former Premier of New South Wales (NSW) and vocal environmentalist, Bob Carr, spoke at a GreenCollar Think Tank event on July 12, about the changes in environmental policy under the new NSW government and [...]

Moderator’s Opening Remarks

David — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:18:03 +0000

One of the largest challenges in climate policy is the coordination of mitigation actions across diverse economies, each with different emissions intensities and abilities to reduce emissions in the short to medium term.

While it is widely agreed that the first best solution is to coordinate policies so that all countries face the same effective [...]

Opening remarks – Negative position

Leo — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:50:30 +0000

Although there have been recent news headlines[1] where the likelihood of a trade war based on ‘green’ standards has been highlighted, the likelihood of such a scenario seems hard to justify. The interests at stake are too powerful to allow for such an event to occur. As economists, we know that the gains from [...]

Opening remarks – Affirmative position

Scott — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:46:13 +0000

To support the affirmative argument that there is likely to be a ‘green trade war’ in response to the US or the EU putting in place border adjustment measures to avoid ‘leakage’, requires support for a number of propositions such as (i) multi-lateral policy negotiations failing to deliver a solution, (ii) that the costs of [...]

First Rebuttal – Negative

Leo — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:51:30 +0000

Scott Davenport’s contribution points to a number of hurdles that need to be overcome if there is to be a green trade war. Among these, the complexity problem is key. The multilateral negotiation process is more likely than not to breakdown. We have seen this on several occasions, most recently in Copenhagen. The multilateral negotiation [...]