Melbourne School of Land and Environment

Professor Jeff Bennett
B Ag Ec (UNE), PhD (ANU)

Crawford School of Economics and Government, Australian National University

Estimating monetary values for environmental costs and benefits has been contentious within the economics discipline and in policy circles. Recent developments internationally and in Australia indicate a growth in the use of non-market environmental valuation techniques. A number of case studies of application in real policy setting - including River Red Gum Forest management along the River Murray, designing e-waste recycling policy, vetting climate change policy and assessing the extension of a coal mine in the Southern coalfields of NSW - will be used to demonstrate current practice. On-going research challenges will also be highlighted.

Professor Bennett has over 30 years experience researching, consulting and teaching in the fields of Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Agricultural Economics and Applied Micro-Economics. He is currently leading research projects investigating the use of non-market techniques to estimate the value of the environment, the use of auctions to encourage land use change in western China and private sector conservation initiatives.

Jeff was President of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society in 2004 and is currently co-editor of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He is Principal of the consulting group, Environmental and Resource Economics. Jeff is also director of the Environmental Economics Research Hub funded under the Commonwealth Environment Research Facility.

For further details visit: Jeff Bennett - Crawford School of Economics and Government

Economics and Commerce Building
‘The Spot', 198 Berkeley Street, Carlton
Tuesday, 2nd June 2009 - 5:30-7pm

Understanding and adapting our communities to the new world of climate change impacts is essential to ensuring our continued prosperity.

In association with the Victorian Government’s Department of Sustainability and Environment, the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) and Office for Environmental Programs (OEP) are hosting a public lecture featuring leading international researchers in the areas of economics, social mobilisation and assessment of global change. This lecture will examine the costs of climate change for business, government and the community, and engage the audience with the complex and dynamic problem of adaptation, as a challenge for society at large.

Professor Kaj Vilhelm Rosén

Deputy Managing Director, The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden (Skogforsk)

Prof. Kaj Rosén has a PhD in forest soils completed at the Department of Forest Soils, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and further expertise in biogeochemistry and measures to counteract negative effects on the ecosystem, such as liming and wood ash application.

In 1988 Prof. Kaj Rosén was appointed head of the Department of Forest Soils and in 1993 associate dean of the Faculty of Forestry. In 1995 Prof. Kaj Rosén was appointed dean of the Faculty of Forestry with a full responsibility of 800 employees and a budget turn-over of 55 million EURO.

During the last years Prof. Kaj Rosén have been engaged in the development of the Forest Technology Platform (FTP) and coordinated the EU FP6 Integrated Project EFORWOOD (Tools for Sustainability Assessment of the Forestry-wood Chain), a project with 38 participating organisations from 21 countries.

In 2005, Prof. Kaj Rosén was invited by MISTRA (The Environmental Strategic Foundation) to coordinate the preparation of a proposed large forest research initiative, "Future Forests". . The project is approved and planed to start in January 2009 with a yearly budget equivalent to 5 million AUD over four + four years. Half of the funding is coming from the small forest owners and the forest industry companies.

Download Flyer: EFORWOOD - Tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment of the Forestry-wood Chain

Amane Makino

Professor, phD
Department of Applied Plant Science, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 981-8555, Japan

Genetic modification to enhance Rubisco efficiency has great agronomic importance as a prospect to improve photosynthesis. The specific activity of Rubisco from rice is substantially lower than that in other plants. Therefore, lower specific activity from rice provides the possibility to improve leaf photosynthesis by the introduction of a more efficient Rubisco into rice. An attempt to increase Rubisco content by overexpressing the rbc S gene shows increases in Rubisco content for a given leaf N content. However, such overproduction of Rubisco protein does not improve photosynthesis. A partial deactivation of Rubisco occurs in the lines with overproduced Rubisco. On the other hand, the transgenic lines with reduced Rubisco content show higher rates of photosynthesis only at elevated CO 2 levels. Another approach to improving photosynthesis is to introduce C 4 characteristics into rice. Lastly, source and sink improvement will be discussed in relation to an increase in yield of modern japonica-type cultivars.

Dr Greg McPherson

Center for Urban Forest Research
U.S. Forest Service, Davis, CA, USA

Urban forests have a role to play in reducing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere through sequestration and conserving energy used for space heating and cooling. By cooling urban heat islands trees can reduce the local effects of heat waves, air pollution, flooding, and drought on human and environmental health. The new Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol provides guidance for developing urban tree planting and stewardship projects than can be registered with the Climate Action Registry. The Protocol sets the stage for investment in large-scale tree planting projects that generate carbon offsets and improve quality of life in local communities. This presentation describes the potential of tree planting projects to meet GHG reduction targets and protocol reporting issues such as eligibility, permanence, additionality, verification, and monitoring requirements. The Tree Carbon Calculator, a new tool for implementing GHG tree projects, will be previewed. [more]

Download Flyer: Urban Forests and Climate Change - Dr Greg McPherson