Climate Politics & Policy

Climate Change represents the most significant existential threat we face. And responding effectively to it is a political and policy challenge of the highest order. It requires substantial international cooperation, national policy responses that could feasibly extend from financial incentives to regulation, engagement with private corporations and even attempts to reorient individual behaviours. As Australia’s recent experience with climate politics and policy demonstrates, any attempt to address climate change through policy can be significantly contested and politicised as environmental impacts come to be measured against current economic benefits of business as usual practices, especially with various actors muddying the waters about the science of climate change and responses to it. It is for a combination of these reasons that climate change has been labelled a ‘wicked’ policy problem.

This Inter-disciplinary Climate Politics and Policy network has emerged partly in recognition of this reality, and partly as a result of recognition of the need to draw on and engage with a range of other disciplines to make sense of the climate crisis and guide responses to it. Effective climate policy in Australia, for example, clearly requires a strong understanding of the science of the problem, awareness of its multiple effects in different sectors, an appreciation of public attitudes and what drives these, recognition of the key roles of industry and the business sector, an understanding of the latest technology available to enable the energy transition, and recognition of what’s expected from Australia by our allies and the international community in this area. This necessarily involves extending beyond disciplines- no one discipline can understand the origins, drivers or responses to the climate crisis alone.

This network draws together UQ researchers working on various elements of this challenge from across the University. With a membership and participation extending already to every Faculty in the University, there is clearly a demand for this type of inter-disciplinary network to enable colleagues to connect with each other, share latest research and even communicate the expertise of the University in this space to the broader institution and beyond. We would hope this in turn encourages substantive collaboration between researchers at UQ to understand and address the climate challenge.

Activities in 2023 included an initial auditing and introduction exercise to get to know others working in this area and introduce the network; a more directed discussion across a series of themes identified in our initial session; and a roundtable presentation on the climate crisis and responses to it on the eve of international climate talks in Dubai.