Climate Change: Asia Pacific
Australia and the Near Asia Pacific Region: Responses to Climate Change
Investigators:
| Professor Robyn Eckersley | School of Political Science and Criminology, Arts |
| Dr Peter Christoff | School of Social and Environmental Enquiry |
| Dr Jon Barnett | School of Social and Environmental Enquiry |
Summary
Global warming will have serious implications for equity, ecological stability and environmental security in the Asia-Pacific region. For these reasons, developed nations like Australia should consider enhancing and institutionalizing regional cooperation to combat climate change – both through mitigation and adaptation activities. At a regional level in the Asia Pacific and perhaps even more so in the near-Asia Pacific region, the distribution of climate impacts and capacities for response is starkly inequitable. Some of the region’s poorest countries, such as East Timor and Tuvalu, have made only the slightest contribution to the problem of global warming yet will be hardest hit by its impacts. Not only do these poorest nations face the greatest threats, but their vulnerability to potential climate impacts is enhanced by their lack of capacity to address them. This proposal seeks to explore of the benefits of increased Australian involvement in climate change action in the near Asia-Pacific region.