Roundtable Series: Living with 2°C Plus – The Climate Change Adaptation Challenge

Living in a world of more than 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures will present a host of challenges to water, food, health, infrastructure, ecosystems, social equity, cultural heritage and more. All of these impacts will have costs. Current indications are that we are heading for at least a 2.5°C warmer world. 

The Monash Green Lab roundtables, held in collaboration with the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), will bring together leading international and Australian thinkers from government, business and community sectors.

The roundtables will provide insights from current work on climate change adaptation and point to areas where further work is required.

Roundtable 2: Extreme weather events, flood risk and stormwater systems

Thursday, 13 February at 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM AEDT

The world is seeing an increasing frequency of extreme weather events. Rising temperatures increase atmospheric moisture and the behaviour of phenomena such as atmospheric rivers which contribute to catastrophic events. While it is expected we will see increasing frequency of these events, how prepared are existing systems to cope? What are the consequences for flood risk and stormwater systems?  Can we afford to rely only on traditional infrastructure, or do we need to consider alternatives? Do we need to engage a broader range of people in understanding the problem and participating in the solution?

In this second roundtable on Living in a 2 degree plus world, we will discuss how these issues are being addressed in Australia, the United States and Asia with leading academics and practitioners and consider pathways forward.

Panellists

Associate Professor Ailie Gallant works on drought, precipitation variability and precipitation extremes in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Faculty of Science, Monash University. She is also Chief Investigator for the Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather.

Ben Furmage is Chief Executive Officer at Water Sensitive Cities Australia (part of Monash Sustainable Development Institute). He previously spent 10 years as a member of Melbourne Water’s executive leadership team.

Richard Savage is Director, Environment and Planning, Aurecon Advisory Australia. He is an engineer with expertise in planning, development and operations of water and wastewater infrastructure. He previously spent a decade working on network planning in South East Queensland with GHD Group and prior to that led the network planning team at WorleyParsons. In 2023 he was presented with the Distinguished Service Award by the Queensland branch of the Australian Water Association. 

James Murley is Chief Resilience Officer for Miami-Dade County in Florida he was a founding member of the American Society for Adaptation Professionals and Resiliency Florida. He previously served as Chair of the Florida Energy & Climate Commission.

Debra Knopman is a Professor at Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her expertise in hydrology, environment and natural resource policy, systems analysis and public administration has been applied to projects in the United States and China.

Professor Yuan Xu leads the environmental policy and governance program at the Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His current work explores climate impacts on mega-cities.

Felicia Marcus is a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West program and a former Chair of the California State Water Resources and Control Board. She also served as regional administrator for the EPA and President of the Board of Public Works for LA.

Roundtable 3: Managing risk, value and insurance protection

Details to be released – join the waitlist.

Contact

greenlab@monash.edu

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