Past Events 2009
Topic: 'Crunch Time' - Tony Kevin’s Book Launch
Presenter: Tony Kevin
Date: Wednesday 11th November 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
Topic: Integrated infrastructure planning – shaping the cities of the future
Presenter: Jeremy Blackwell
Date: Thursday, 5th November 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
Abstract
As Client Relationship Executive responsible for the Community Development market in Queensland and Australia-Pacific champion of the State and Local Government market sector, Jeremy will provide insights into his market strategy (which is being developed). This will include client and market observations, including the shift towards integrated metropolitan and infrastructure planning and the opportunities to deliver integrated strategic solutions to shape the cities of the future.
About the presenter
Jeremy is PB’s Client Relationship Executive for the Community Development market area in Queensland and the Australia-Pacific Champion for the State and Local Government market sector. He is responsible for developing and implementing the market strategy and for the sales, pipeline and health of client relationships.
Jeremy has extensive experience in strategic, urban and development planning; environmental assessment and approvals; project management; commercial management; client relationship management; and business development. He has worked across Queensland and New South Wales in various roles, including Manager of PB’s Sunshine Coast office and Queensland Business Development Executive.
Under PB’s international accreditation, he is recognised as a:
- Senior Project Manager
- Professional Associate - Urban Planning
- Business Development Associate
Topic: How does a city reduce its carbon footprint by 40% in a decade? The story of Hannover, Germany.
Presenter: Hans Mönninghoff
Date: Thursday, 22nd October 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, 3 Pakenham St Fremantle
Come along to CUSP to hear Hans Mönninghoff discuss Hannover’s reduction of its greenhouse emissions.
Under Han's leadership, initially as Director, Environmental Services, Hannover has easily achieved the Kyoto target reduction below 1990 levels, and now is aiming for 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, with further more significant reductions in the years following. This is in an environment of economic growth, and is the world's largest Messestadt (Fair/Convention City). Additionally, the city of Hannover is consistently rated as having one of the highest quality of life indices in Germany. Hannover also has the world's most successful holistic sustainable model community - Kronsberg, which was completed over ten years ago, and has achieved a 78% reduction in CO2 (amongst many other sustainability goals). It is seen as one of the most successful examples of sustainable development in the world, definitely in Europe. Every day there are visiting parties from all over the world inspecting this development, and learning from it.
About the presenter
Literal translation of Hans' position is First Senior Council Advisor. Technically Hans is the equivalent of an administrative CEO of a Council, as he is the head of administration (as well as Director of two departments) under the Lord Mayor, who is titled as the CEO, but the German political system names its positions differently to Australia. Hans is one of the very best in German Local Government, and it is said that no one else holds as many key positions as he does. He is also the only German Green to hold an Economic (Wirtschafts) Portfolio. Unlike in the Australian system, head bureaucratic positions are also political in nature. Hans founded the City's Climate Action Program, ProKlima, which has been instrumental in making Hannover an international leader in urban responses to climate change.
Hans Mönninghoff’s visit to Australia is co-sponsored by the Goethe Institute and proudly supported by the German Consul-General and the German-Australia Chamber of Commerce.
Topic: Building Sustainability into the Secondary School Curriculum
Presenter: Richard Swan
Date: Thursday, 15th October 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
Abstract
HotRock is a WA based charity that is helping high schools to develop whole school Sustainability Programs. HotRock is doing this by providing consultation, funding, teaching resources and workshops to high schools that want to make Sustainability Education a priority within their curriculum. HotRock is investing in high schools by providing funding for the creation of learning tools (such as organic food gardens, shadehouses and recycling programs), with the intention of using these hands-on learning activities to stimulate student-centred learning of more abstract Sustainability concepts in the classroom. The goals are to promote awareness of the consequences of our daily consumption choices, empower school communities to take action within themselves and the environment, raise awareness of the Sustainability challenges that are facing us and how we can work together to start healing our Earth (and ourselves).
About the presenter
Richard Swan is the co-founder of the HotRock organisation. Richard was teaching Science and Maths at Australind Senior High School before the birth of HotRock. His passion for the environment grew out his coming of age experiences in the mountains of South Africa and the oceans of the world. Richard lives in Dunsborough with his wife and three daughters.
Topic: Green Loans Training with EcoSmart
Presenter: Kai Wuthenow
Date: Wednesday 17th September 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
The Green Loans Program is part of the Federal Government’s energy efficient homes stimulus package (http://www.environment.gov.au/greenloans/). It pays for professionally trained and accredited Home Sustainability Assessors to visit 360,000 Australian Homes and conduct a Home Sustainability Assessment. This assessment enables these households to apply for a Green Loan, which is an interest free loan of up to $10,000 which is used towards the implementation of bigger tick items which were found to be necessary during the home assessment.
EcoSmart was one of the first 5 training providers who were asked to conduct the training for the Home Sustainability Assessment Scheme (http://www.hsas.net.au/site/index.cfm) which is the required training for assessors of the Green Loans Scheme. EcoSmart has since trained almost 200 assessors. Out of those, over 20 have joined EcoSmart and have started to do assessments as part of our team. Our goal is to be a leader in the field of providing household’s with Sustainability Assessments and to help them towards reducing their carbon footprint.
Topic: "Living in False Creek North from the Residents' Perspective: a Report on a Post-Occupancy Evaluation of High-rise Housing in Vancouver"
Presenter: Dr Wendy Sarkissian
Date: Thursday, 3rd September 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
Abstract
A long-time supporter of sustainability, Wendy Sarkissian had the opportunity in 2007 and 2008 to co-direct a huge post-occupancy evaluation into resident satisfaction in Vancouver's massive downtown high-rise housing development. The study, funded by two prominent developers, the City of Vancouver and two planning firms (including Wendy's), was conducted by postgraduate planning students at the University of British Columbia. It canvassed many aspects of liveability in this high-profile urban TOD. Join Canadian-born Wendy Sarkissian for an illustrated lecture as she revisits her childhood home and reports on what makes high-rise housing liveable, what works and what doesn't work, based on in-depth interviews, observations, research with children, community engagement and a large self-complete questionnaire survey of residents.
About the presenter
Dr Wendy Sarkissian FPIA is passionate about our future: the future of work, of housing, of communities and of community engagement. She is committed to finding spirited ways to nurture and support an engaged citizenry. Her successful career as consultant and academic in Australia and overseas has provided firsthand knowledge of many contexts, from developers’ boardrooms to low-income housing estates. Initially trained as an educator, she holds a Masters of Arts in literature, a Master of Town Planning and a PhD in environmental ethics.
She has worked as a social planning consultant since 1981.
Building a career as a social planning consultant when there was no such discipline, she has pioneered innovative planning and development approaches in an astonishing variety of contexts. This work has earned her forty professional awards. Widely regarded as a leader in her profession and acclaimed as a humorous and thought-provoking speaker, Wendy is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Sustainable Development, Bond University. From 2006 to 2008, she was Adjunct Professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning, UBC and has taught in many Australian and overseas universities.
Wendy is a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and has expertise in corporate and social planning, housing planning and design, community engagement, public open space, user needs, including designing for children, older people and people with disability, social research, facilitation, and post-occupancy evaluation. She has wide experience in helping organisations develop strategic approaches to addressing complex problems.
Wendy lives in an intentional ecological community in Nimbin, New South Wales.
During 2008 and 2009, Wendy co-authored three books for Earthscan Publishers in London. The first, Kitchen Table Sustainability, Practical Recipes for Community Engagement with Sustainability, was published in December 2008. SpeakOut, a manual for designing and managing SpeakOuts and other community workshops, was released in April 2009. The third book on Creative Community Planning is in press and due for publication in early 2010.
Topic: The future directions of the Australian Sustainable Development Institute
Presenter: Charlie Thorn
Date: Thursday, 6th August 2009
Time: 11.30 am–12.30 pm
Venue: CUSP, 3 Pakenham Street, Fremantle
About the presenter:
Mr. Thorn has over 28 years experience in research management, commercialisation and technology transfer in agriculture, fisheries and University research institutions.
He has held several executive positions in government in both the fisheries and agriculture sectors and more recently in the University sector including the Director Research and Innovation at Edith Cowan University and Associate Director Research and Development at Curtin University of Technology.
He is currently the Director of the Australian Sustainable Development Institute (ASDI) at Curtin University of Technology. The role of the Director is to lead, develop and grow the University’s sustainability research in the areas of energy, climate change, water, sustainable resources, urban and regional development, sustainable communities and food.
Mr. Thorn has held several board positions on CRC's and regulatory authorities. He is currently a board member of the Western Australian Marine Science Institution and Digital Ecosystems and Business Intelligence Institute.
Making Space for the Sea: Adapting to Climate Change in Fremantle
On Friday 24 July 2009, the Australian Sustainable Development Institute and the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute hosted t a free public climate change adaptation workshop designed to promote community input to the climate change adaptation planning process for Fremantle. Download flyer [.pdf - 1.01MB]
Please view the presentations here.
Coastal Development - Adele Carles Presentation [.pdf - 1.68MB]
Fremantle Climate Change Adaptation Workshop - Charles Johnson [.pdf - 474kb]
Climate Change in Southwest WA - Glenn Cook [.ppt - 1.13MB]
Jon Adaptation [.ppt - 1.19MB]
Coastal adaptation to climate change: sustainability and good practice - Laura Stocker [.pdf - 2.64MB]
Climate change impacts on water resources in Western Australia - John Ruprecht [.pdf - 1.43MB]
Topic: Transition Management: Enabling Climate Change Adaptation in Australia’s Coastal Zone
Presenter: Laura Stocker
Date: Thursday, 28th May 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
About the presenter
Laura Stocker is an Associate Professor in Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy Institute. She is a marine ecologist by training. Currently, she researches and teaches in the area of coastal sustainability, climate change policy, sustainability mapping, sustainability education, cultural values of place, and conceptual aspects of sustainability.
Abstract
There exists substantial lay, traditional and scientific evidence of climate change and its probable effects on the coast. However, policy-makers and planners have generally been slow to develop and implement strategies for climate change adaptation. These gaps in communicative engagement and implementation will lead to lack of resilience and to unsustainability in coastal communities as climate change effects such as sea level rise and saltwater intrusion take hold. Contemporary experience and theory suggest the need for greater reflexivity: the need to recognise how governance, knowledge systems and broader societal loops shape each other, and act on themselves; and the need to challenge the foundations of systems, find alternatives and change shapes. This seminar presents transition management as a possible approach. Transition management is long-term process during which a society or a subsystem of society fundamentally changes. It is based on continual learning using available evidence, and so is reflexive, iterative and adaptive; it is participatory; it utilises front-runners; it is oriented towards long-term sustainability goals and visions; it acknowledges societal normative concerns; and it changes the ways in which systems are organised.
Topic: Engineering, scientific, economic, sustainability, decision aiding and policy challenges as evidence of climate change accelerates
Presenter: Satis Arnold
Date: Thursday, 21st May 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: CUSP Institute, 3 Pakenham Street, Fremantle
Abstract
The Copenhagen Climate Science Congress in March heard alarming new evidence that Climate change drivers and impacts are moving faster than reported in the last IPCC Assessment Report in 2007. Emissions are growing faster than ever before; projections of emissions growth to 2030 are greater than all previous forecasts. Observed and modelled impacts are also greater than previous forecasts; sea level rise could exceed a meter by 2100; warming could be rising above dangerous thresholds well before 2100, unless prompt action is taken on a global scale on many fronts.
The seminar will briefly explore the challenges for the world and opportunities for sustainability institutes. The Copenhagen UNFCCC COP15 meeting in December will reveal if the world’s attempt since the Bali December 2007 Conference to limit warming since pre-industrial times to 2C has to any extent succeeded. Informed observers expect real results to take longer.
The climate system is biophysical with lag and lead times that lock in warming long after emissions are placed in the atmosphere. The planetary carbon cycle operates amongst vast sources and sinks that are sensitive to warming. These natural features of the planet give rise to great danger that achieving climate stability may no longer be possible by gradually reducing emissions.
As Nicholas Stern has warned consistently since his 2006 report, the longer the world takes to act, the harder and costlier the task will become. In response to these concerns, the seminar will consider the challenges and opportunities for engineering, science, economics, decision aiding, sustainability and policy.
About the presenter
Satis Arnold is a Director of the higher education and sustainability consulting firm Cambridge Partners, and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at CUSP. He is a former Director of the Australian Sustainability Development Institute at Curtin University, Director Policy and Planning at Murdoch University, Senior Policy Adviser at the ANU, and Director Research Policy in the Higher Education Division of the Australian Department of Education and Science.
Topic: What Determines a Community to Choose the Pathway to Sustainable Development in Central China?
Presenter: Jiuchang Wei
Date: Thursday, 14th May 2009
Time: 11.30 am - 12.30 pm
Venue: CUSP, 3 Pakenham Street, Fremantle
Abstract:
The county-level economy plays a vital role in the economic growth of China. There are a total of 2,070 county-level economic entities in China, which cover 95 percent of China's land area, support 74 percent of the population, and generate 60 percent of GDP and 24 percent of fiscal revenues. Most environmental challenges have their roots in local activities. In China, the county governments have the duty and incentive to keep the regional economic growth at a rapid level because of the performance assess from the state governments which emphasizes on the economic achievements.
In this study, we divide the communities into four groups, namely sustainable high-poverty communities, unsustainable high-poverty communities, sustainable low-poverty communities, and unsustainable low-poverty communities. We collected the data of 498 counties in 2000 and 2006 to analyze the comparison between sustainable communities and unsustainable communities, and determinants of the development pathways to sustainable communities. The variable means comparison between groups of the sustainable high-poverty communities and unsustainable high-poverty communities in 2006 represents that there is no significant difference on the dimensions of economy, society, and environment, excluding the average output value per industrial enterprise. The unsustainable low-poverty communities are more likely to have higher proportion of the secondary industry, higher total industrial output value, higher average output value per industrial enterprise, and higher intensity of infrastructure construction, compared to the sustainable low-poverty communities. The factors that determine the communities to choose the pathway to sustainable communities are the landscape and social conditions of secondary industry and agriculture, and the economic development level. So the policies that aim at promoting the sustainability of the unsustainable communities will have to focus on the different actions for unsustainable high-poverty and unsustainable low-poverty communities.
About the presenter:
Jiuchang Wei is an associate professor of School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China. He is currently visiting the Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute as a visiting scholar sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences.
His research interests cover the sustainable development in Central China and disaster information communication.
Topic: Developing and implementing a community-led marine educational campaign: A Study in Participatory Action Research
Presenter: Steven Andrews
Date: Thursday, 7th May 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
About the presenter
Steve Andrews: I grew up in San Diego, California and as a child was frequently on the ocean, learning to respect its power and mystery. After visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium in second grade, I knew I wanted to study our marine environment. I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2007 with a BS in Conservation and Resource Studies. Following graduation I worked as a research diver for UC Santa Barbara studying the effects of artificial reefs on temperate biotic communities.
Abstract
As development occurs and humans continue to increase our environmental impact, serious attention and effort needs to be allocated to the creation of local environmental educational programs. My question is: What is the potential for a community-based educational program to promote marine stewardship in the Cape to Cape area? The Cape to Cape region is a biodiversity hotspot and the terrestrial as well as marine environments are under threat as more and more people visit and move to the region. Therefore, it is “prime” time for the creation of a local marine educational program. First, the community understanding/knowledge of their marine environment will be assessed. Then, along with the community, various educational tools will be examined and their effectiveness measured utilizing a social research method referred to as participatory action research. Ultimately, the major goal will be to have a community created and community led marine educational program that will have longevity and be adaptive.
Topic: Ecology versus Economics: Do Humans Face Malthusian Population Constraints?
or
How Many People Can the Earth Support?
or
Are Humans a Species Prone to Population Overshoot and Collapse?
Presenter: Dr. Max Kummerow
Date: Thursday, 16th April 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
About the presenter
Dr. Max Kummerow was awarded a PhD in Property Studies by Curtin Business School in 1997 with a dissertation on office market cycles. He was a lecturer and senior lecturer in Curtin’s Department of Property Studies, School of Economics & Finance from 1992 to 2004 when he returned to the United States and took a visiting lecturer position at the University of Washington. While at Curtin he published a number of papers on office market cycles and real estate valuation theory. His paper “A statistical definition of value” was awarded a “best paper” prize in 2002 by the American Appraisal Journal. Since 2006 he has been employed by Greenfield Advisors, a Seattle real estate consulting firm. In 2008 he began part time study for a second PhD in Curtin’s Economics Department. His interest in population’s relationship to poverty and economic development began during three summers in Guatemala and Brazil during the 1960s where he witnessed the effects of kwashiorkor and malnutrition firsthand.
Abstract
Malthus 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population was the first important quantitative model in both Ecology and Economics. But Malthus’ ideas have had radically different acceptance in the two “eco” (Greek for home or household) disciplines. Malthus became bedrock theory in biological sciences. Darwin and Wallace both wrote that half of their theory of evolution (excess reproduction and environmental limits) came from reading Malthus. They added natural selection and survival of the fittest. In economics, Malthus’ essay was a polemic against expanding the “poor laws,” that is, as part of a political economy debate in opposition to reformers like William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet. With a few important exceptions (J.S. Mill, Gunnar Myrdal, Ken Boulding, Herman Daly, Bob Costanza) a majority of economists, revolutionaries and reformers rejected Malthus and concluded instead that humans are able to escape excess reproduction and environmental constraints (Marx, Henry George, Robert Solow, Julian Simon). Mainstream economics textbooks and policy debates barely mention population levels or growth as factors in economic development. Many economists assume an automatic “demographic transition” to stable populations occurs as incomes increase and converge. But, while the past century provides clear evidence that reducing fertility has been associated with long term peace and prosperity (and vice versa), fertility remains high in poor countries, creating “poverty traps”, dramatic demographic shifts, illegal immigration and violent conflicts. This presentation argues for the ecologists’ position, using the concept of ecological niche to examine why although both functions in Malthus’ model—exponential growth of population, arithmetic growth of food supplies—were completely wrong, nevertheless the basic insight that environmental limits matter stands more clearly demonstrated now than in Malthus’ time—the natural scientists and “moral restraint” (Malthus’ term for birth control) economists win the debate. Moreover, the ecologists’ concern has morphed from “limits” to “overshoot and collapse” scenarios. Economists were correct in pointing out humans’ ability to expand our biological niche (and therefore sustain higher populations—we’ve grown from 1 to 7 billion since 1800), but should listen to natural scientists and historians who point out that collapse and shrinking niches have also been frequent in the historical record of our species. Herman Daly’s “steady state economics” integrates the economic and ecological perspectives by pointing out that the human economy is an open subsystem of earth’s planetary ecosystems with inputs of energy, materials and “ecosystem services” and outputs of various forms of pollution and depletion of “natural capital” such as fossil fuels, soils, groundwater stocks and species diversity.
Topic: City of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ – Can we address this polarization?
Presenter: Dr Reena Tiwari
Date: Thursday 9th April
Time: 11.30 am–12.30 pm
Venue: CUSP, 3 Pakenham Street, Fremantle
Abstract:
A shift from the traditional 'City of Lived Experience' to the present day 'City of Consumption' has seen the emergence of a disconnection between people and their city environments. This is becoming more apparent in cities dealing with identity-crisis, crisis of consumerism and with social polarization. In today's global city we are seeing new geographies of rich and the poor being created and urban space has become a space of contestation (Sassen, 2001).
Can an approach of 'Urban Crafting' be developed that makes connections between different spatial geographies of the rich and poor within our cities? Searching and identifying opportunities within the local context, offering alternate architectural technology that uses and interprets local materials and local skills and involves the community may result in a built environment that not only connects the main stream with the marginalised, but also connects the inhabitants with spaces that they inhabit.
Project done for a slum community in India will be presented and the applicability of this approach in Perth context will be discussed.
About the presenter:
Reena Tiwari is an urban designer and an academic in the Departments of Urban & Regional Planning and Architecture at Curtin University of Technology Perth, Western Australia. She has developed a framework of city-enquiry, underscoring a critical engagement with the embodied and expressive aspects of city life. Her work for marginalized communities both in India and Australia provides a ground for a comparative exploration of the needs, lifestyles, questions of identity and change for these communities. She has a PhD in the area of Urban Studies, a Masters in Urban Design and a Bachelor Degree in Architecture.
Topic: Understanding the Sustainability of Desert Settlements: from gender issues of socio-technical systems to the implications of the power curve with connected towns.
Adj. Assoc. Prof. Kurt Seemann
Presenter: Adj. Assoc. Prof. Kurt Seemann
Date: Thursday, 2nd April 2009
Time: 11.30 am–12.30 pm
Venue: CUSP, 3 Pakenham Street, Fremantle
Abstract
In this seminar Kurt responds to the general question:
“What are we learning about how desert settlements work?”
Research into understanding desert settlements remains somewhat eclectic rather than integrated, settled and systemic. For the most part, what is often portrayed as settlement research is in fact specific research about a small collection of key settlement focus areas such as its economy, town planning, ecological footprint, demographics, or research associated with the social anthropology surrounding a focus issue such as health, transport or housing. In this presentation, a summary is offered of emerging research and field methods that seem to work. The implications of emerging concepts such as the ‘power curve indicator’ are briefly introduced. These and other new ideas may suggest that Australia’s desert settlements are the way they are, possibly due to them emulating scale-free modular networks with preferential tendencies. The seminar finished with suggested areas for further research and method development that could make a significant impact on how we come to understand and make policy about our human desire for settlement making.
About the presenter
Dr Kurt Seemann is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute and is the Director of Research of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour NSW. Kurt is also the Core Project Leader of ‘Sustainable Desert Settlements’ research, in the Desert Knowledge CRC. Kurt’s research interest has been to understand the relationship between People, Technology and the Environment as a complex adaptive and connected system. The scale of his research has focussed at two levels: the human scale of holistic technology education and processes of innovation, and the larger societal scale of systems driving and defining the sustainability of human settlements.
Topics:
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Regional Comparisons and Decomposition Analyses of CO2 Emissions in Japan
-
What Affects the Change in Energy Use and CO2 Emission in the Economy?
Presenter: Ryoji Hasegawa, Makoto Tamura
Date: Thursday, 19 March 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
About the presenter
Ryoji Hasegawa and Makoto Tamura are Project Researchers of ICAS (Institute for Global Change Adaptation Science) from the Ibaraki University. Ryoji Hasegawa’s majors are: Environmental Economics, Regional Economics and Input-output Analysis. His topics are: Regional Policy for Global Warming, Decomposition Analysis of CO2 Emissions at the Local Level, Economic Damage of Flood Disaster Due to Global Warming at the River Basin and Environment and Economic Impact of Introducing Bio Energy Industries.
Makoto Tamura’s major is Environmental Economics. His topics are Decomposition Analysis of CO2 Emissions and General Equilibrium Analysis.
Abstract
Ryoji Hasegawa:
Each local government in Japan has established a program for GHGs reduction and is seeking solutions for global warming. This study investigates regional differences of CO2 emissions among all prefectures in Japan using regional energy matrixes constructed in the author’s studies. Furthermore, we apply Structural Decomposition Analysis (SDA) across prefectures to analyze regional structure of CO2 emissions using regional I-O tables. Results show: (1) various regional characteristics in volume and intensity of CO2 emissions and (2) major factors generating regional discrepancy of CO2 emissions are emission intensities, the volume of regional export and the composition of regional export. These findings are useful to consider the potentiality of CO2 emission reduction at prefecture levels.
Makoto Tamura:
There has been renewal of interest in the energy analysis, driven by the recent fluctuation in energy prices. Economic analyses often focus on price changes, which lead to the price substitution effect affecting the overall economy. On the other hand, it is clear that the changes in the patterns of energy use are caused by a multitude of factors, including autonomous technological development. Accordingly, decomposition methods are necessary if we want to understand the contribution of these various explanatory factors to structural change in the economy or changes in energy use.
The purpose of this study is to suggest a new approach to such decomposition. The multiple calibration technique is applied to an ex post decomposition analysis of structural change between periods, enabling the distinction between price substitution and technological change to be made for each sector. A distinguishing feature of this method is to separate structural change due to price substitution from that due to technological change by capturing the interdependence among economic sectors or factor inputs in a general equilibrium framework. This approach has the advantage of sounder micro theoretical underpinnings when compared with conventional decomposition methods.
This study applies the proposed methodology to the Japanese economy to evaluate the factors responsible for changes in energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This empirical analysis serves to illustrate the methodology’s forte, which is to provide a better understanding of how much the economy was affected by price substitution or technological change. The results quantitatively show that technological change is the principal factor in diminishing energy use and CO2 emissions in Japan while total CO2 emissions increased primarily because of final demand effects reflecting economic growth.
Topic: Report from Australia’s first Citizens’ Parliament in Canberra
Presenter: Janette Hartz-Karp, Dora Marinova, Rachel Armstrong, Dinny Laurence, Ed Oldmeadow, Rob Weymouth, Chiara Pacifici, Patrick Anderson
Date: Thursday, 26 Feb 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
Abstract:
Australia's first Citizens' Parliament (CP) was held at Old Parliament House in Canberra from February 6th to 9th, 2009. One hundred and fifty randomly selected people from across Australia, spent four days deliberating about how to strengthen our democracy to serve us better.
It was an extraordinary event - exceeding all expectations on almost every count: so many more participants than expected volunteered to take part; the good will and sustained effort through the CP of all those involved was extraordinary; the impacts of participating were considerable with many participants and members of the support team stating that the CP was a “life changing experience”; it was the most researched deliberation in the world which should lead to a much better understanding of deliberation; and the outcomes/CP Final Report were quite prescient - e.g., from the 52 proposal options to strengthen our democracy that the Citizen Parliamentarians had brought to the discussions, two of the proposals they had prioritised were reported in The Australian in lead articles the week after - as proposals put forward from quite independent ‘expert’ research findings.
About the presenter:
CUSP staff and students took key roles - Janette Hartz-Karp designed and co-led the CP; Dora Marinova was Report Coordinator; Rachel Armstrong was Theme Team Coordinator; and Dinny Laurence, Ed Oldmeadow, Rob Weymouth, Chiara Pacifici, and Patrick Anderson all played roles on the theme team, or as researchers or facilitators. At our CUSP Seminar, the group will be presenting their impressions and learning from their experiences at the CP.
Dr Janette Hartz-Karp is renowned nationally and internationally for her innovative work in community engagement and deliberative democracy. Her current position as Professor of Sustainability CUSP underscores the critical need to engage citizens and communities in more dynamic ways if we are to achieve greater sustainability.
Topic: Lessons from a study of Silver Surfers: A story in two parts
Presenter: Peter Dell
Date: Thursday, 12 Feb 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
Abstract
The Rio Declaration includes principles such as cooperation, responsibility and respect for others, and sustainability research must consider the perspectives of all stakeholders – particularly groups who have often been excluded from debate in the past, such as indigenous groups, women, the elderly and the poor.
Qualitative research is well-suited to understanding these diverse perspectives, yet in contrast to quantitative analysis, the analysis of qualitative data is a challenging task with few universally accepted or well-established procedures.
Another challenge to qualitative research is that policy makers often favour quantitative data as more objective, and therefore it is imperative that qualitative be able to demonstrate a logical, structured analytical technique in order to have maximum impact.
In this talk I describe the qualitative analysis technique used in my doctoral studies, which provides a systematic technique for the analysis of free-form interview data.
About the presenter
Peter Dell is a lecturer at the School of Information Systems at Curtin University and recently completed a PhD at the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP) at Murdoch University. He research interests fall mainly in IT field, but he has been known to dabble in sociology. He is a recluse of sorts and often finds machines or animals less annoying than people – both ideal qualifications for human-centred research.
Topic: Report from America
Presenter: Professor Peter Newman
Date: Thursday, 5 Feb 2009
Time: 11.30 am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
As one of Australia’s leading academics and planners, Professor Newman heads a team of more than 20 top staff and researchers that make up the Curtin Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute. Professor Newman developed the State Sustainability Strategy 2001-2003, and coined the term "automobile dependence" to describe how we have created cities where we have to drive everywhere. For more than 30 years he has been warning cities about preparing for 'peak oil' and in Perth, Peter is known for his work in saving, rebuilding and extending the rail system which is now considered a global model. Peter has been in the US on a tour to promote his two new books ‘Green Urbanism Down Under’ and ‘ Resilient Cities – Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change’ and he was able to attend the inauguration and speak with the new administration. He will speak about his trip and impressions of the new hope in global politics associated with Obama.
