RMIT experts available for comment on global leaders’ summit on climate

US President Joe Biden will host the virtual event on April 22 and 23 (US time), which also coincides with Earth Day.  

Dr Emma Shortis  (0430 358 798 or emma.shortis@rmit.edu.au) 

Topics: US history, US politics, Biden administration, climate politics, environmental history, Trump administration,  

“Joe Biden has promised to restore American global leadership on climate change and his Leaders' Summit on Climate, happening later this week, will be the first real test of his resolve. How he handles Australia will be critical.  

“Biden and his climate envoy, John Kerry, have said in no uncertain terms that Australia needs to take substantial action to tackle climate change.  

“In response, the Australian government has changed its rhetoric but not its policies. 

“The Morrison Government will go to the summit assuming it can wait out any pressure from the Biden administration, hiding behind complicated but ineffective policy pronouncements and assuring itself that the consequences of US pressure will be minimal. 

“Whether the Biden administration and the European Union continue to tolerate this inaction, it will have significant consequences, both for the outcome of this summit and for the approach world leaders take to COP26 in Glasgow in November.”  

 Dr Emma Shortis is a Research Fellow at the EU Centre of Excellence at RMIT University. She was a Fox-Zucker International Fellow at Yale University during her PhD in history, is a regular media commentator on the history and current politics of the US and co-host of RMIT’s politics and culture podcast Barely Gettin’ By. Her first book about Australia’s relationship with America will be published later this year.  

Dr Chloe Ward  (0439 998 704 or chloe.ward@rmit.edu.au)

Topics: EU affairs, EU and climate politics, Paris Agreement, UK politics, British history, European history 

“For the EU, this summit is about welcoming the US back into the fold of the Paris Agreement. 

“While Donald Trump trashed US ambitions on climate, the EU has been positioning itself as a global leader on climate for some time. Its coronavirus recovery plans are wrapped up with its goal to become a ‘carbon-neutral continent’ by 2050. 

“We are likely to see Europe soon increase its 2030 carbon emissions targets to 55% of 1990 levels, and its plans for a ‘carbon border adjustment mechanism’ could have serious implications for its trading partners, including Australia. 

“With the EU’s plans well underway, and the US renewing its climate commitments, all eyes will be on China, and whether it will up its ambitions for a green transition.  

“The EU has been trying to keep political criticism of the regime separate from its trading relationship with China. But this looks increasingly difficult and these tensions are very likely to spill over into the climate talks.” 

Dr Chloe Ward is a Research Officer at the EU Centre of Excellence in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University. She is a historian of modern British politics and culture and co-host of RMIT’s Barely Gettin’ By podcast. 

Professor Lauren Rickards  (lauren.rickards@rmit.edu.au)

Topics: climate change management, agriculture, farming  

“Climate change is undermining our ability to manage and mitigate it.   

“There is a real risk that the disasters and chaos we’re seeing – fires, floods, cyclones, even the emergence of coronavirus – will push the ability to manage climate change beyond our reach unless we act quickly.    

“Unless we dismantle the incentives and injustices that enable climate change and the destruction of our environment, we will also undercut our capacity to manage climate change.    

“More than just minimising harm though, we need to regenerate the many landscapes already scarred and depleted of carbon by urban-driven processes, to restore the ecosystems we rely on and the climate we are vulnerable to.   

“We now need to resource such efforts properly, learn from them, and build their insights into our institutions. There is a lot of hard, inspiring work happening on this including the RMIT-led Future of Food project and Climate Change Exchange.  

“Society does not have time to tackle these problems one fragmented project at a time.  

“We have to build on each other’s’ work, and together we can develop the capabilities we need faster than climate change erodes them.”

Professor Lauren Rickards co-leads the Climate Change Transformations research program and is Interim Director of the Urban Futures Enabling Capability Platform at RMIT University. She also advises governments and businesses on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. 

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