Overview

The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) will host Professor Ross Garnaut, a Professorial Research Fellow in Economics from the Faculty of Business and Economics in the University of Melbourne, to deliver a public lecture entitled 'Asia and the Global Response to Climate Change'.

Abstract

Asia would be damaged more severely than any other region by a failure to reach the climate change goals agreed at Paris in December 2015. At the same time, Asia has been contributing most of the increase in global greenhouse gas emissions since the beginning of the twenty first century. So climate change is a big challenge to development in Asia, and a substantial part of the solution is in the hands of the major Asian countries.

Asian economies are now making large contributions to breaking the old nexus between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. Japan and Korea have been global leaders in energy efficiency and in developing export products embodying this quality. China, the source of most of the atmosphere's increase in greenhouse gas emissions, is now supplying the whole of its increase in energy demand, and more, from zero emissions sources. Its mass production of solar panels, wind farms, hydro-electric turbines, co-generation capacity and even nuclear generators has lowered the costs of reducing emissions everywhere.

Southeast and South Asia have become the main locus of global emissions growth. Here the challenge is to reduce emissions without damaging economic growth or reducing standards of living of poor people. Technological change, dramatic reductions in the cost of capital goods and of capital, and new mechanisms for funding investment in low emissions infrastructure from China and Japan have made this a realistic ambition.

Event Details

• Time: 11 AM to 12 PM (registration open 10:30 AM and lunch will be provided)
• Map of venue: click here
• RSVP: click here to register until 3 November 2016
• Further information: Ms Lina at [email protected]

Bio

Professor Garnaut's short bio can be found here.

News Article

Prof Ross Garnaut Public Lecture: Asia and the Global Response to Climate Change