The Australian Government has opened the first grant application round of the Biodiversity Fund, with applications closing 5pm AEDT Tuesday 31 January 2012. The Biodiversity Fund is a key element of the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Future Land Sector Package and supports land managers to store carbon, enhance biodiversity and build resilience across the Australian landscape.
Decision Point is a downloadable monthly magazine from the Centre of Excellence Environmental Decisions (CEED). The November issue contains a timely story on good decision making under climate change. It’s one of the first studies of its kind that undertakes ecological optimisation of investments in managing plant communities that are expected to be lost under climate change. There are also articles on sufficiency (as opposed to efficiency), using INFFER to make better decisions, conservation theory, and publishing persistence.
The European Citizens Climate Cup (ECCC) is an energy saving competition between households throughout 10 European countries. From April 2011 to April 2012, households are invited to join the competition and use the online toolkit (ESA) to monitor their household energy consumption against that of previous years. This website helps provide all participants with information and tips and tricks on how they can save energy in their home and the ESA will calculate and demonstrate the savings they make. At the end of the competition, there will be an ‘Energy Saver of the Year’ – the individual or household that has made the greatest energy savings.
The Water Resources and Freshwater Biodiversity adaptation network brings together Australia’s top water scientists with interests and skills in water resources and freshwater biodiversity, and the implications of climate change. There is an urgent need to understand the risks to Australia’s surface and groundwater resources and freshwater biodiversity due to climate change (in the context of other pressures) as well as the technical and policy interventions that will be required to meet future human water needs without further degrading freshwater ecosystems and the important natural assets and values they provide. The network is coordinated by the the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF).
On Thursday, 2 June 2011 the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, the Hon Tony Burke MP and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, the Hon Greg Combet AM MP, asked the House Standing Committee on Climate Change, Environment and the Arts to inquire into and report on Australia’s biodiversity in a changing climate. The Committee invites submissions addressing one or more of the points listed in the terms of reference. Submissions should be forwarded by email by Friday 29 July 2011.
The Global Reports on Human Settlements provide authoritative and up-to-date assessments of conditions and trends in the world’s cities and other human settlements. Written in clear non-technical language and supported by informative graphics, case studies and extensive statistical data, these reports are essential tools and references for researchers, academics, planners, public authorities and civil society organizations around the world. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Cities are green’ is becoming a common refrain. But in his new book Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change Peter Calthorpe argues that a more comprehensive understanding of urbanism at the regional scale provides a better platform to address climate change. He shows how such regionally scaled urbanism can be combined with green technology to achieve not only needed reductions in carbon emissions but other critical economies and lifestyle benefits. Rather than just providing another checklist of new energy sources or one-dimensional land use alternates, he combines them into comprehensive national growth scenarios for 2050 and documents their potential impacts. In so doing, he demonstrates that it will take an integrated approach of land use transformation, policy changes and innovative technology to transition to a low carbon economy.
Food sensitive planning and urban design (FSPUD) recognises that access to healthy, sustainable and equitable food is an essential part of achieving liveable communities. The new resource – Food Sensitive Planning and Urban Design: A conceptual framework for achieving a sustainable and just food system – is intended to raise the awareness of planners, architects, urban designers, engineers, policy makers, community members and elected representatives of the need to integrate food considerations into urban land use and development.