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

Following COP29, Monash Green Lab will host three roundtables to discuss the challenges of implementing strategies to live in a world with average temperatures more than 2°C warmer than pre-industrial levels. Current indications are that we are heading for at least a 2.5°C warmer world.

Bringing together leading international and Australian thinkers from government, business and community sectors, the roundtables will provide insights from recent work on climate change adaptation and point to areas where further work is required. 

The first roundtable, in partnership with the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration, will cover UNFCCC adaptation work, updates from COP29, and developments in Australia and the United States.

Roundtable 1: Where are we, why are we here and where do we want to go?

Thursday 28 November, 9:00 am to 10:30 am AEDT

State of Play 1: UNFCCC; global goal on adaptation, objectives and progress

Luke Millar is a member of the UNFCCC Adaptation Committee representing Annex 1 Parties. Luke works on international adaptation engagement at DCCEEW in Canberra. He will discuss the origin of the Global Goal on Adaptation, its objectives, achievements and next steps after COP 29.

State of Play 2: Adaptation governance; comparing three countries

Professor Dan Guttman led a multi-year study looking at adaptation governance in three countries. Dan is the co-convenor of the International Panel of the National Academy of Public Administration in the United States, a distinguished environmental lawyer and teacher. 

State of Play 3: Adaptation in Australia either side of the lost decade

Associate Professor Janet Stanley (Melbourne University) led a research project on adaptation for small coastal communities in 2012. She has recently compared the findings from that work with outcomes from rural adaptation workshops in 2022 and 2024 (with Michael Spencer and Franz Wohlgezogen).

State of Play 4: Tracking progress on adaptation

Professor Elizabeth Losos recently participated in a collaborative project on adaptation indicators for the White House. She is an adjunct professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment Duke University. Her work focuses on sustainable and resilient infrastructure. 

Panel discussion

Presenters are joined by Professor Mark Pisano, co-convenor of the intergovernmental panel of the National Academy of Public Administration, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Oran Young and Dr Franz Wohlgezogen (University of Melbourne) to discuss challenges in moving the adaptation agenda forward. The discussion will be facilitated by Dr Michael Spencer, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Green Lab, Monash Business School.

Professor Pisano is a Professor of the Practice of Public Administration at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. He is Co-chair of the Infrastructure Working Group of California Forward. With Rob Lempert, he developed the concept of Water and Climate Resilient Boundary Centres.

Distinguished Professor Oran Young is a renowned for his contribution to Arctic governance and a world leader in the fields of international governance and environmental institutions. He was co-lead on the international comparative adaptation governance project for the National Academy of Public Administration with Professor Dan Guttman.

Franz Wohlgezogen, Senior Lecturer in management was the lead author of a paper submitted earlier this year to the UNFCCC United Arab Emirates–Belém work programme on indicators that addressed the challenges of developing indicators for the global framework on adaptation adopted at COP28.

Roundtable 2: Measuring risk and value to incentivise adaptation 

Details to be released – join the waitlist.

Roundtable 3: Water – too much, too little and water vulnerability 

Details to be released – join the waitlist.

Contact

greenlab@monash.edu