Jan McDonald, University of Tasmania

Jan McDonald explored ideas related to fairness in adaptation law, recognizing the challenge of simultaneously operationalizing adaptation law, while also ensuring fairness in adaptation law. Adaptation actions can play a key role in addressing injustices relating to climate change; yet adaptation actions themselves involve making choices and making trade-offs with justice implications. If an over-arching object of adaptation law is fairness, then laws should tackle the issues of who benefits from adaptation, and who pays. The importance of mitigation was also raised, as if mitigation is not stressed in society, adaptation will not be able to cope with climate stresses, and there will be a larger adaptation gap, leading to greater losses and damage locally, nationally and inter-generationally.

This talk was held at:

Imagining a Different Future

Climate Justice Conference

A multidisciplinary conference examining the barriers to responding to climate change, implementing climate justice, and proposing ways forward was held in Hobart 8-9 February 2018. Despite the Paris Agreement, there are real concerns the prevailing neoliberal economic and political model, particularly with the move to more insular, nationalistic, fragile politics, cannot respond effectively to climate change and excludes key considerations such as ethics and justice.

Keynote Presenters were: Robyn Eckersley, Steve Vanderheiden, Catriona McKinnon, Marcus  Düwell, Jeremy Moss, Sivan Kartha, Lavanya Rajamani, Guy Goodwin-Gill, Jack Pezzey, Nathan Bindoff, Ben Richardson and Jan McDonald. (Full list of the presenters in the final programme.)

The University of Tasmania hosted the Conference with support of its Faculty of Law, the University of Utrecht Ethics Institute, the University of Tasmania's Institute for the Study of Social Change, Asia Institute, Faculty of Medicine, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science (IMAS).

Videos and Podcasts from the conference are available on the Knowledge Hub.

Sivan Kartha, Stockholm Environment Institute

Sivan Kartha presented a civil society report on fair shares and climate equity, which calculated equitable effort sharing efforts among nations, and the required efforts in terms of mitigation and climate support. This was calculated in light of metrics relating to responsibility (historical emissions), and capability (national income), evaluated in light of various progressivity indicators. These ‘fair shares’ were then evaluated against the pledges or ‘national contributions’ made by countries under the Paris Agreement. Results indicated that some developed countries’ contributions are well below their equitable fair shares, regardless of which progressive model is used. Further, while some developing countries have met their fair shares, more support is required from developed countries to enable these poorer countries to take on still greater mitigation efforts.

This talk was held at:

Imagining a Different Future

Climate Justice Conference

A multidisciplinary conference examining the barriers to responding to climate change, implementing climate justice, and proposing ways forward was held in Hobart 8-9 February 2018. Despite the Paris Agreement, there are real concerns the prevailing neoliberal economic and political model, particularly with the move to more insular, nationalistic, fragile politics, cannot respond effectively to climate change and excludes key considerations such as ethics and justice.

Keynote Presenters were: Robyn Eckersley, Steve Vanderheiden, Catriona McKinnon, Marcus  Düwell, Jeremy Moss, Sivan Kartha, Lavanya Rajamani, Guy Goodwin-Gill, Jack Pezzey, Nathan Bindoff, Ben Richardson and Jan McDonald. (Full list of the presenters in the final programme.)

The University of Tasmania hosted the Conference with support of its Faculty of Law, the University of Utrecht Ethics Institute, the University of Tasmania's Institute for the Study of Social Change, Asia Institute, Faculty of Medicine, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science (IMAS).

Videos and Podcasts from the conference are available on the Knowledge Hub.

Lavanya Rajamani, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

Lavanya Rajamani addressed equity and differentiation in the 2015 Paris Agreement, exploring their evolution, maturity and prospects. Her presentation examined the provisions of the Paris Agreement – how they include, shape or omit the principles of equity and differentiation; and how differentiation is more dynamic and tailored to different issue areas. She noted that these issues remain contested terrain, but there are ways that equity and differentiation can be addressed in post-Paris negotiations. Countries could provide indicators and details of how they assess fairness and ambition in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), but ultimately this will be nationally determined. Another way to bolster equity and differentiation is by supporting developing countries to implement their NDCs, as they are often conditional upon support. In the context of the global stocktake, group indicators could also be evaluated and linkages between action and support can be made.

This talk was held at:

Imagining a Different Future

Climate Justice Conference

A multidisciplinary conference examining the barriers to responding to climate change, implementing climate justice, and proposing ways forward was held in Hobart 8-9 February 2018. Despite the Paris Agreement, there are real concerns the prevailing neoliberal economic and political model, particularly with the move to more insular, nationalistic, fragile politics, cannot respond effectively to climate change and excludes key considerations such as ethics and justice.

Keynote Presenters were: Robyn Eckersley, Steve Vanderheiden, Catriona McKinnon, Marcus  Düwell, Jeremy Moss, Sivan Kartha, Lavanya Rajamani, Guy Goodwin-Gill, Jack Pezzey, Nathan Bindoff, Ben Richardson and Jan McDonald. (Full list of the presenters in the final programme.)

The University of Tasmania hosted the Conference with support of its Faculty of Law, the University of Utrecht Ethics Institute, the University of Tasmania's Institute for the Study of Social Change, Asia Institute, Faculty of Medicine, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science (IMAS).

Videos and Podcasts from the conference are available on the Knowledge Hub.

Nathan Bindoff, Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, Hobart

Nathan Bindoff explored changes to the oceans and cryosphere, drawing on assessments by the IPCC. The climate, across a range of scientific measures, has already changed and this was caused by human influence. These climate changes will impact a number of areas including future surface temperature and sea levels, which as a consequence will impact food security, food nutrition and economic stresses.

This talk was held at:

Imagining a Different Future

Climate Justice Conference

A multidisciplinary conference examining the barriers to responding to climate change, implementing climate justice, and proposing ways forward was held in Hobart 8-9 February 2018. Despite the Paris Agreement, there are real concerns the prevailing neoliberal economic and political model, particularly with the move to more insular, nationalistic, fragile politics, cannot respond effectively to climate change and excludes key considerations such as ethics and justice.

Keynote Presenters were: Robyn Eckersley, Steve Vanderheiden, Catriona McKinnon, Marcus  Düwell, Jeremy Moss, Sivan Kartha, Lavanya Rajamani, Guy Goodwin-Gill, Jack Pezzey, Nathan Bindoff, Ben Richardson and Jan McDonald. (Full list of the presenters in the final programme.)

The University of Tasmania hosted the Conference with support of its Faculty of Law, the University of Utrecht Ethics Institute, the University of Tasmania's Institute for the Study of Social Change, Asia Institute, Faculty of Medicine, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science (IMAS).

Videos and Podcasts from the conference are available on the Knowledge Hub.

Steve Vanderheiden, University of Colorado at Boulder

Steve Vanderheiden addressed climate justice by refocusing and moving beyond his previous work on the evolution of the concept of burden sharing, to include future oriented and speculative ideas of the relationship between justice and democracy. Justice and democracy have primacy at different stages of climate policy, that is, at the level of international decision-making and national implementation, respectively. Justice and democracy, however, rarely meet. There should be a normative, rather than merely empirical reconciliation between these two concepts. Both input (procedural) and output (substantive) justice involves the same set of normative commitments. They are not distinct in application or scope but apply in a symbiotic way, adherence to which may bind democratic institutions by equity commitments, where equity is constituted democratically. There is need for experimental research into equity outcomes from different democratic forms.

This talk was held at:

Imagining a Different Future

Climate Justice Conference

A multidisciplinary conference  examining the barriers to responding to climate change, implementing climate justice, and proposing ways forward was held in Hobart 8-9 February 2018. Despite the Paris Agreement, there are real concerns the prevailing neoliberal economic and political model, particularly with the move to more insular, nationalistic, fragile politics, cannot respond effectively to climate change and excludes key considerations such as ethics and justice.

Keynote Presenters were: Robyn Eckersley, Steve Vanderheiden, Catriona McKinnon, Marcus  Düwell, Jeremy Moss, Sivan Kartha, Lavanya Rajamani, Guy Goodwin-Gill, Jack Pezzey, Nathan Bindoff, Ben Richardson and Jan McDonald. (Full list of the presenters in the final programme.)

The University of Tasmania hosted the Conference with support of its Faculty of Law, the University of Utrecht Ethics Institute, the University of Tasmania's Institute for the Study of Social Change, Asia Institute, Faculty of Medicine, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science (IMAS).

Videos and Podcasts from the conference are available on the Knowledge Hub.

Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne

Robyn Eckersley discussed how to win political legitimacy for climate justice in the face of pluralism, and whether there is a fundamental tension between democracy, and achieving the collective and mutually beneficial goal of climate justice. Eckersley argued that we do not have to accept an inevitable clash between democracy and climate justice, but that justice as a normative principle is integral to democracy. Further, there is a need to engage citizens, explore new political connections, and draw linkages between looming climate disaster, and problems that are real and ongoing in democracies today.

This talk was held at:

Imagining a Different Future

Climate Justice Conference

A multidisciplinary conference examining the barriers to responding to climate change, implementing climate justice, and proposing ways forward was held in Hobart 8-9 February 2018. Despite the Paris Agreement, there are real concerns the prevailing neoliberal economic and political model, particularly with the move to more insular, nationalistic, fragile politics, cannot respond effectively to climate change and excludes key considerations such as ethics and justice.

Keynote Presenters were: Robyn Eckersley, Steve Vanderheiden, Catriona McKinnon, Marcus  Düwell, Jeremy Moss, Sivan Kartha, Lavanya Rajamani, Guy Goodwin-Gill, Jack Pezzey, Nathan Bindoff, Ben Richardson and Jan McDonald. (Full list of the presenters in the final programme.)

The University of Tasmania hosted the Conference with support of its Faculty of Law, the University of Utrecht Ethics Institute, the University of Tasmania's Institute for the Study of Social Change, Asia Institute, Faculty of Medicine, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Science (IMAS).

Videos and Podcasts from the conference are available on the Knowledge Hub.