The ANU Climate Change Institute plays a strong role in bringing together expertise from the core areas to form interdisciplinary teams designed to tackle the most complex climate change problems.

• Integrated climate change response options for Canberra and the region
• China and Asia in the 21st Century: climate change and development
• Adaptation to climate change in rural Australia
• Climate-energy-water systems
• Society-climate interactions in the past

Integrated climate change response options for Canberra and the region

Working with our own community to design and implement knowledge-based solutions to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and adapting to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.

Project:

• Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation in Canberra and the SE region: an integrated Biophysical, Policy and Governance Approach

Collaborators/Funding Agency:

• ACT Government (Funding agency)

Project leaders:

• Associate Professor Janette Lindesay
  Associate Director (Education) & Deputy Director
  ANU Fenner School of Environment & Society
• Professor Will Steffen
  Executive Director
  ANU Climate Change Institute
• Dr Bob Webb
  Visting Fellow
  ANU Fenner School of Environment & Society

China and Asia in the 21st century: climate change and development

An integrated approach to studying climate change in one of the world’s most dynamic countries, from the impacts of climate change on China’s food production and water resources to its geopolitical implications for the nation’s security and international negotiation strategies.

Projects:

• Climate Change and the Third Pole (Project leader: ANU Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies' Dr Katherine Morton)
• Environmental Technology Transfer in Asia and the Pacific (Project leader: ANU Climate Change Institute's Dr Lance Heath)

Adaptation to climate change in rural Australia

A broad-ranging study of the many ways in which climate change will affect livelihoods and well-being in rural Australia, from changes in agricultural productivity through impacts of extreme weather on health to the implications of climate change for rural communities.

Project:

• Drought and Drying in Rural Australia

Project Leader:

• ANU National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health's Professor Tony McMichael

Climate-energy-water systems

Exploring system-level links, synergies, trade-offs and feedbacks towards designing energy and water policies for more resilient and adaptable societies.

Project:

• To establish a new conceptual framework capable of supporting integrative policy making in the climate-energy-water system.

Collaborators:

• UTS (Sydney) and ANU (Canberra)

Project leaders:

• ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society Visiting Fellow Dr Barry Newell, University of Technology Sydney's Dr Deborah Marsh, and ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society's Dr Karen Hussey

Society-climate interactions in the past

Working towards an integrated history of people and environment, with an emphasis on the transformation or collapse of past civilisations under climatic stresses.

Project:

• Integrated History and Future of People of Earth (IHOPE). Part of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program.

Project Leaders:

• Adjunct Professor Mike Smith and Dr Libby Robin.