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Call to arms on climate change

9 July 2008

Head of Monash Climate Professor Amanda Lynch is a co-author of a submission that calls for the creation of a new National Sustainability Policy.

Monash's most senior governance and climate change experts have called for the creation of a new national sustainability policy aimed at creating a framework for monitoring and mitigating activities that contribute to climate change.

The experts -- Director of Monash's Governance Research Unit Associate Professor Ken Coghill; Head of Monash Climate Professor Amanda Lynch; Director of Monash's Centre of Policy Studies Professor Philip Adams; and University of Melbourne Professor David Karoly -- said the policy should include wide consultation with Australian organisations and the public in a manner similar to the highly successful National Competition Policy process of the 1990s.

In a submission to the Victorian Government's Climate of Opportunity Green Paper, the group argues major innovation in governance is essential to achieve the big reductions in carbon emissions required to curb dangerous climate change.

"The nature and extent of the changes required are extraordinary and exceed those required at the outbreak of World War II," the researchers said.

"The changes must occur in almost every aspect of life. Government must establish a framework within which individuals, households, businesses and communities are given a clear sense of leadership and direction, and the capacity to respond with high levels of autonomy."

The experts call for an initial wide-ranging public inquiry to report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on "the governance arrangements needed to effectively implement carbon trading and the myriad other changes we need to make in the way we live".

Under the Monash submission:

• COAG would then agree on a National Sustainability Policy (NSP) -- a set of objectives and prohibitions against unsustainable behaviour;
• A federal Environmental Practices Act would be introduced to ensure every business in Australia operated in accordance with the NSP;
• State and local governments would enforce the Act and drive other reforms.

The Commonwealth would make payments for satisfactory progress with policy implementation and related reforms. A National Sustainability Council would oversee the new sustainability system and advise COAG on further reforms.

For more information on sustainability research at Monash, visit the Sustainability Institute website.