The Melbourne Newsroom

Expert scientists from across Australia have joined forces to enhance public understanding of climate change science through an innovative question-answer style report, launched yesterday.

Internationally-renowned conservation biologist Professor Stephen Hopper will present novel ideas on how we can use plants to mitigate climate change, in a public lecture at the University of Melbourne this week.

The following text comes from the 2010 Hamer Oration held at the University of Melbourne on Thursday August 5, 2010.  The speech was given by Professor Ross Garnaut, a Vice Chancellor's Fellow and Professorial Fellow in Economics at the University.

 

Researchers at the University of Melbourne have teamed up with the Sustainable Agriculture Fund (SAF) to tackle the challenges the Australian farming industry will face in maintaining productivity under a changing climate.

A biologist working to protect threatened ecosystems and a physical chemist exploring the applications of quantum materials are both recipients of Australian Laureate Fellowships, administered by the Australian Research Council.

An international workshop to reconstruct climate change history in the Australasian region is being held this week at the University of Melbourne on Monday 31 May to Wednesday 2 June 2010

Australia must do - and more importantly, be seen to do - its bit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by transport, says Professor Nicholas Low, Director of the University of Melbourne-based Australasian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT).

Speaking ahead of an international conference organised by GAMUT on "Sustainable Transport in the Asia-Indo-Pacific", Professor Low says Australia needs to work harder to move transport planning in the right direction.

Key contributors to climate change policy making in Australia will reflect on their experiences and point to the lessons that can be learnt at a forum at the University of Melbourne on Tuesday 30 March.

Butterflies are emerging in spring over 10 days earlier than they did 65 years ago, a shift that has been linked to regional human-induced climate change in a University of Melbourne- led study. The work reveals for the first time, a causal link between increasing greenhouse gases, regional warming and the change in timing of a natural event.

Eight University of Melbourne students will be part of history this month as they take part in a global debate around the COP15 United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen.