Abstract
There is no longer a debate about whether climate change is happening due to anthropogenic emissions of carbon – the debate now is around the scale of the likely impact, how to mitigate further increases in temperature and what to do adapt to those impacts.
Not surprisingly, universities have been at the forefront of the climate science. Australian universities are established to do three things: to teach, research and engage. To varying degrees climate change and its impacts have penetrated all three agendas. Universities are clearly at the forefront of teaching and researching climate change and engaging with society about the science-based actions that need to be taken to combat to both mitigate and adapt to its impacts. However, interestingly only three Australian universities commit themselves to absolute reductions in carbon from their operations.
This paper will look at the performance of universities in reducing carbon emissions from their operations and seek to identify the reasons why universities do not adopt the science that they say the rest of the society should adopt. It also considers whether universities’ performance in partnering internally has implications for their ability to partner with external organisations.
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Acknowledgement
This work has been funded by a PhD scholarship from the CRC Low Carbon Living. The project is looking to develop a business model to help universities, business and government understand the benefits of high-performance, evidence-based innovation. With thanks to Abigail Burbridge for assistance in finding documentation.
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Emission data: http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/NGER/National%20greenhouse%20and%20energy%20reporting%20data
All mission-based compacts can be found at: https://docs.education.gov.au/node/34873
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Burbridge, M. (2018). Do as I Say; Don’t Do as I Do, Let Alone Do as I’ve Done. A Study of Australian Universities’ Collective Response to Climate Science. In: Sayigh, A. (eds) Transition Towards 100% Renewable Energy. Innovative Renewable Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69844-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69844-1_5
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