Time for action: The need for children and young people in climate decision-making

Children and young people are essential voices and forces for change in public health, yet they are not included in climate discussions and decision-making. In today’s post, public health researchers from Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation (@IHT_Deakin) Grace Arnot (@GraceArnot), Dr Hannah Pitt (@HannahLPitt) and Dr Simone McCarthy (@SimoneNicoleM) highlight the important knowledge and experience that children and young people have, and call for their greater inclusion in climate decision-making and public health governance.

AdvocacyPower to Persuade10 April 2024climate change, Children, policy problem, Policy making, human rights

Deadlier than flames: The devastating impacts of bushfire smoke

2023 has made headlines as the hottest year in recorded history, and Australia is gearing up for a serious bushfire season. In today’s post, VicHealth Postdoctoral Research Fellow Rongbin Xu (@RongbinXu) of Monash University (@MonashUni) shares his research into how bushfire smoke is an increasingly hazardous public health threat and needs a more focused policy response.

Creating using evidencePower to Persuade21 November 2023climate change, public health, public policy, health

Climate Change in South Asia and Lessons for the Philippines in Building Community Resilience

Building on the post-disaster recovery narratives, today’s piece by Dr Sajal Roy and Oliver Tirtho Sarkar draws insights from the Munda Indigenous peoples' response to climate change in Bangladesh and documents their livelihood-rebuilding strategies to identify lessons which can be replicated in the Philippines in the context of other climate induced disasters like Cyclone Mocha.

Power to Persuade23 August 2023climate change, Disaster management

Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Australia must do more for Climate Affected Communities

In the Indian Sundarbans, like in many places of the world, the climate crisis is a current reality. In this ‘age of adaptation’, climate change is not a future possibility – it is a present threat. In this post, Annabel Dulhunty (@AnnabelDulhunty) from the Crawford School of Public Policy discusses how Australia needs to convert rhetoric into reality when it comes to climate change, through meaningful emission reduction and increased aid for communities most impacted.

Advocacy, Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade19 April 2023climate change, foreign aid

Election 2022: The ‘persisterhood’ changes the game

Women have been the central story of the 2022 federal election. In today’s analysis, Jessica Lane of Women for Australia (@Women4Aus) provides a breakdown of the election results and what lessons can be drawn from the outcome. Women for Australia supports progressive women to run for political office.

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED AT COP26?

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade15 November 2021climate change

What role does engineering innovation have in environmental change, and what should the balance in policy be?

Events such as wild fires, floods, and droughts in all continents remind us of how fragile and vulnerable cities, communities, and wildlife are. In this blog Dr Juan Carlos Fallas Chinchilla examines the role engineering innovation has in relation to alleviating climate change; and debate the need for new technology alongside other policy instruments and how these can be complementary in tackling the climate emergency.

Toward our Human Future: catastrophic risk, the public good, and the importance of community

The Commission for the Human Future (@HumanFutureAU) recently held a groundbreaking webinar on Catastrophic Risk and the Public Good: Toward our Human Future. Hosted by Dr Arnagretta Hunter (@cbr_heartdoc) - a cardiologist and the Human Futures Fellow in the College of Health and Medicine at ANU and chair of the Commission - and featuring Dr Luke Kemp, an expert in catastrophic risk now based at Cambridge, and Dr Millie Rooney from Australia reMADE, the discussion addressed two big themes: threats to humanity and what matters for people in their lives. The conclusions were that community is central to our human future, and that catastrophic risks like climate change, nuclear war and artificial intelligence can be reduced through better democratic representation, through better economics and through a deliberate acknowledgement of the value of caring and importance of community. In today’s post, Dr Hunter explores key lessons from the webinar and explains why the best hope for a better human future lies in concerted effort.

Coronavirus is a wake-up call: our war with the environment is leading to pandemics

COVID-19 is not only a health, social and economic problem - it is an environmental problem.

Fiona Armstrong (Climate and Health Alliance), Anthony Capon (Monash Sustainable Development Institute) and Ro McFarlane (University of Canberra) explain why biodiversity conservation and mitigating climate change are crucial to preventing future pandemics.

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade6 April 2020climate change, COVID-19, environment

Telling the story of climate change: threat or emergency, and does it matter?

What happens if we classify climate change as a threat, not an emergency? Liz Boulton from the ANU’s Fenner School of Environment and Society explains how military strategy can be combined with new ideas from philosophy to understand climate change as a ‘hyperthreat’ – and describes what that might mean for crafting effective policy solutions. This is the second in the Narration as Regulation series from ANU’s School of Regulation and Global Governance (Regnet)

Innovation, Policy and governance, IssuesPower to Persuade29 October 2019climate change, Policy Research, communication

Listening in: using the election results to create a better Australia

In the wake of the election results, Millie Rooney (Australia reMADE) describes how a united and inspiring vision for what Australia could be can help us work together across and around difference to create ‘the best version of us’.

Using cognitive science research to redesign policy decision making systems

Climate change is back on the political agenda and public support for action on climate change is at its highest level since 2007. But can we expect our political institutions to be able to respond in the time and scale needed given their past failures? Rather than merely policy reform do we need to reform the system of government itself? In today’s post Celia Green and Andrew Joyce discuss how cognitive science research could be used in the redesign of our political institutions to enable better decision making processes.

Financing climate action in the Pacific: Why we need to move past solutions based exclusively on views from the top

Effective climate change action needs a lot of money. However, in the Pacific it is not just about delivering dollars. Kirsty Anantharajah gives us three key problems with global climate financing approaches, and offers three possible pathways out.

No New Coal Mines: new hope for effective climate change activism

Anna Chang, Director of Communications at The Australia Institute, dissects the new campaign No New Coal Mines.

Advocacy, IssuesPower to Persuade21 November 2018climate change, Wicked issues

Tesla's 'virtual power plant' might be second-best to real people power

The Bruny Island Battery Project is trailing new technology in Tasmania, with the aim of creating a grid that is flexible, reliable, cheaper and based on renewable energy. The researchers involved tell us more in this repost from The Conversation

Making space for Utopia

In an inspiring tale of grassroots activism, Dr Millie Rooney, coordinator of the Sustainability Integration Program for Students at UTas, relates how mentoring students to fight for the world they want helped them access their “power to persuade” to achieve policy change at their university.

Tackling climate change one sausage at a time

Are the wicked issues of climate change and obesity mutually exclusive or inextricably linked? Stephen Gow, from specialist health system advisory service Open Advisory Pty Ltd, challenges us to bring together these two schools of thought.

Power to Persuade8 November 2017Wicked issues, Obesity, climate change

How can policy entrepreneurs and problem framing help tackle climate change?

Climate change is a problem that can and should be fought in multiple ways and at many different levels, argue policy researchers Michael Mintrom (ANZSOG) and Joannah Luetjens (Utrecht University) in their recent journal article. Policy entrepreneurs actively work with others in and around policymaking venues to promote policy change. They play – and will continue to play – an important role in efforts to address climate change.

Policy and governancePower to Persuade7 July 2017climate change, policy making, entrepreneurship

Tackling Australian policy’s ‘trauma zone’

It’s been a case of one step forward, two steps back, for Australia’s climate policy in recent times. It’s up to the next parliament to get things moving, Paul Burke writes. This post originally appeared on the APPS Policy Forum blog.

IssuesPower to Persuade6 July 2016climate change

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