Australia Country Study

human development, climate change

An assessment of the role of voluntary approaches in public environmental policy

PhDIn Australia, there is growing interest in the potential for voluntary initiatives by industry to contribute to environmental policy objectives. This dissertation reviews the manner in which three different voluntary approaches (environmental management systems, the Greenhouse Challenge and the mining industry's Code for Environmental Management) have functioned, to assess whether or not voluntary approaches can lead to improved environmental outcomes compared to other policy instruments, and to define the conditions under which these improved outcomes can be achieved. The research indicates that the contribution of voluntary approaches is likely to be limited in situations where voluntary approaches are adopted as the sole policy instrument. That is, there is a need for other policy instruments such as command and control or economic instruments to ensure that organisations meet minimum standards of performance. However, voluntary approaches can make a significant contribution in situations where they provide a transitional function (for example, as a precursor to the implementation of legislation) or where they are used as a tool to assist organisations meet the goals specified in policy or regulations. While the proponents of voluntary approaches have argued that voluntary approaches offer the potential for economic efficiency, reduced administration costs, competitive advantage and innovation, there is limited evidence from the three case-studies to suggest that these benefits are achieved in practice. Soft effects such as education, placing environmental issues on the business decision-making agenda, and improving relationships between business and regulatory authorities appear to be the most important direct outcomes from successful voluntary approaches. The research indicates that, for voluntary approaches to be effective policy instruments, they should contain specific objectives and targets, clearly define the business as usual scenario, include credible monitoring and measuring processes, and be underpinned by suitable enforcement mechanisms

A Density of Meaning : Literary Representations of the British Museum, 1818-1929

Since its establishment in 1753, The British Museum has become one of the iconic museums of the world. It is the home of countless treasures of the ancient world, including the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, and the Assyrian Lamassu. Due to the large shadow it casts, the British Museum appears in unexpected places, including literature. Various authors and poets have interacted with the British Museum in their writing, both upholding and reworking its different meanings and processes

The Use of National Pollutant Inventory Data on Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling

Atmospheric dispersion modelling can be used to estimate the environmental impact of releases to air. The purpose of this paper is determine whether the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI), Australia's national database of pollutant releases, can be used for atmospheric dispersion modelling and, if so, the conditions that must be satisfied for it to be used effectively. The selection of emission estimation techniques (EETs) significantly affects the reliability of reported NPI emissions. The reliability of NPI data has improved as facilities gain a better understanding of the reporting process, as Industry Handbooks are reviewed and as facilities find beneficial uses for NPI data within their organisations. Although NPI data in isolation do not satisfy dispersion modelling requirements, it is likely that the necessary supporting information relating to variation in emissions and source characteristics will be obtained or calculated by industry as part of the NPI reporting process. Regulatory authorities may be able to obtain these data through other regulatory requirements. To lessen the burden on industry in collecting the necessary supporting information for regional dispersion modelling, environmental regulatory authorities could consider the coordinated collection, storage and updating of the necessary information. Dispersion modelling using NPI data may be associated with relatively large uncertainties. However, provided that the uncertainty in NPI emissions estimates is recognised and depending on the end use of the modelling, predictions based on these data could provide the basis for effective decision makin

Improving Cleaner Production through Pollutant Release and Transfer Register Reporting Processes

An effective cleaner production programme requires the efficient collection and interpretation of data relating to a facility's activities, including information of pollutant emissions, wastes generated and raw materials consumed. Many of these data are required to be collected and reported under national Pollutant Release and Transfers Registers (PRTRs) which are an increasingly common environmental policy tool in the OECD countries. This article considers the relationship between cleaner production and PRTR reporting, and discusses whether cleaner production programmes can be enhanced by the use of PRTR data. A case-study of a fertiliser manufacturing facility reporting under the Australian National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) is used to analyse and illustrate the practical issues around linking cleaner production with PRTR reporting. PRTR reporting can assist in identifying cleaner production opportunities and in generating the data sets required to design, implement and monitor cleaner production programmes. There are, however, some limitations in PRTR data that need to be recognised. Specifically, these are issues around data quality and comparability (e.g. PRTRs rely heavily on default emissions factors rather than the monitoring data that are generally required for cleaner production programmes) and the different data sets required for PRTR reporting (which generally require reporting at the site level rather than at the individual process unit level that is required for cleaner production)

The oil and gas industry will need to scale back much faster to limit warming to 1.5°C

If global temperature increase is to be limited to 1.5°C, CO2 emissions must reach net zero in 2050, if not sooner. Consumption of oil must begin to fall in the next few years and fall substantially thereafter – far from the gentle plateauing expected by many in the industry. Gas consumption, considered by the industry to be a “growth engine”, must begin to decline by 2030. Most European oil and gas companies have responded to investor pressure by updating their emission targets, describing them as being consistent with net zero. Research shows that this is not the case. Dan Gardiner, Rory Sullivan, Simon Dietz, and Valentin Jahn say that oil and gas companies will have to go much further to genuinely claim 1.5C/net-zero alignment. For most, this is likely to require a substantial scaling back of investment in exploration and production activities, particularly for oil

The oil and gas industry will need to scale back much faster to limit warming to 1.5oC

If global temperature increase is to be limited to 1.5oC, CO2 emissions must reach net zero in 2050, if not sooner. Consumption of oil must begin to fall in the next few years and fall substantially thereafter – far from the gentle plateauing expected by many in the industry. Gas consumption, considered by the industry to be a “growth engine”, must [...

Paradise lost: A critique of lost urban sites as didactic testing grounds for landscape architecture

The traditional approach within landscape architecture to rejuvenate a distressed ‘lost’ urban site is to cap the problem with a more desirable landscape. This thesis argues that such an approach simply creates a ‘green bandage’ to the problem without actually resolving the real issues behind the disfunction of the space: that is, the social and identity issues of the site and how to reconcile them with a physical space. Elements of urban ruin and degeneration can become active participants in an urban narrative that engages the history of the site and its place within the evolution of the urban context. Time plays a significant role in the understanding of such sites to create methods of developing landscapes as a system which is never static, and is always reflective of the layers of history beneath its transient surface. The proposed site for this thesis design research investigation is the Clifton Street Car Park, situated in the inner urban spaces of Wellington, New Zealand. It is a site that represents a multitude of identities, none of which actually engages with the reality of the history and actuality of the site. The site is a direct response to the overlaying of the standardised urban grid to the east, suburban grids to the west and a rift caused by the government’s failure to complete the motorway extension. It is a site that should be important to the functioning of a city; however, it acts as, and is therefore perceived as, a lost site, a placeless place. The principal objective of this research thesis is to challenge why these in-between spaces so often remain tinged with placelessness and challenge how to deal with the space in a way which will enable the city to actually benefit from such sites through their ability to deliver spatial narrative in the urban context and to facilitate a new typology of design