Ross Garnaut

Dr Ross Garnaut (born July 28, 1946, Perth, Western Australia [cite web |url=http://www.garnautreview.org.au/CA25734E0016A131/WebObj/RossGarnautCVSummary/$File/Ross%20Garnaut%20CV%20Summary.pdf |format=pdf |title=Professor Garnaut's CV |accessdate=2008-03-08] ) AO BA (ANU), PhD (ANU) is a professor of economics at the Australian National University. [ [http://rspas.anu.edu.au/people/personal/garnr_econ.php Ross Garnaut - Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) - ANU ] ]

On 30 April 2007 the State and Territory Governments of Australia, at the request of Kevin Rudd, then leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition, appointed Professor Garnaut to examine the claimed impacts of climate change on the Australian economy, and recommend medium to long-term policies and policy frameworks to improve the prospects for sustainable prosperity. [ [http://www.garnautreview.org.au/domino/Web_Notes/Garnaut/garnautweb.nsf Garnaut Review Web Site: Welcome ] ] (Kevin Rudd was elected Prime Minister of Australia on 24 November 2007.)

The Garnaut Report was handed down on 30 September 2008, with his draft report released on 30 June 2008. Prior to receiving Professor Garnaut's report, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd committed Australia to ratifying the Kyoto Treaty. [ [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22860141-30538,00.html Rapid growth and global warming | The Australian ] ]

Professor Garnaut has also been:
*Senior Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Bob Hawke (1983-85)
*Australia's Ambassador to China (1985-88)
*Chairman, Primary Industry Bank of Australia Ltd (PIBA) (1989-1994)
*Chairman, Bank of Western Australia Ltd (BankWest) (1988-1995)
*First Assistant Secretary (Head of the Division of General Financial and Economic Policy), Papua New Guinea Department of Finance (1975-76)
*Research Director of the ASEAN-Australia Economic Relations Research Project (1981-83), and
*Foundation Director, Asia-Pacific School of Economics and Management (1998-2000).

Professor Garnaut is a member of the Trilateral Commission. [ [http://www.namebase.org/sources/hF.html Trilateral Commission List of Members] , published by NameBase]

He is married to Jayne, with sons John (born 1974 - a journalist for Fairfax Media newspapers) and Anthony (1977).

Garnaut Climate Change Review

The Garnaut Climate Change Review was commissioned by former opposition leader and current Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd [http://www.garnautreview.org.au/CA25734E0016A131/WebObj/GarnautClimateChangeReview-DraftReport-Ch1andPrelim/$File/Garnaut%20Climate%20Change%20Review%20-%20Draft%20Report%20-%20Ch%201%20and%20Prelim.pdf] and by the Australia's State and Territory Governments on 30 April 2007. After his election on 24 November 2007 Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd has confirmed the participation of the Commonwealth Government in the Review.

The final was released on September 30, 2008 [ [http://www.garnautreport.org.au/ Garnaut report homepage] ] , and recommended that Australia push internationally for a carbon dioxide equivalent concentrations of 450 ppm, which would commit Australia to reductions of 25% on 2000 levels by 2020, and 90% by 2050.

The report's recommendations in terms of policy, apart from a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme which included forestry and agriculture, centred heavily on hoping that carbon capture and storage and other clean coal technologies would be available on a wide-scale within the next twenty years.

The report was criticised by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the economic impact that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would have [http://www.acci.asn.au/text_files/media_releases/2008/101-08.pdf] . It was also heavily criticised by environmental organisations, including Friends of the Earth [http://www.foe.org.au/media-releases/2008-media-releases/rudd-must-reject-garnauts-low-climate-change-targets] and Rising Tide [http://www.risingtide.org.au/node/792] . The Australian Conservation Foundation praised the report for advocating a 450 ppm target [http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=1973] .Dr. Clive Hamilton was heavily critical of the report, arguing that it reduced global expectations of what should be aimed for, naively exposed Australia's negotiating tactics to the international diplomatic sphere, alienates both the Australian public and the international community, misjudges the time frames necessary to avoid dangerous climate change, gives Australia numerous special deals, and would be rejected by the international community [http://www.crikey.com.au/Garnaut-Report/20080930-Clive-Hamilton-politics-trumps-science-in-Garnaut-report.html] .

Responses from political parties were mixed. Australian Greens leader Bob Brown showed that the report demonstrated that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would not come at the expense of Australia's economic growth [http://greens.org.au/node/3216] . Climate Change Minister Penny Wong did not comment directly on the report but said that economic responsibility needed to be considered in responding to the report, and that the Government would wait before Treasury modelling on climate change mitigation before responding [http://news.smh.com.au/national/climate-policy-must-be-responsible-wong-20080930-4qio.html] .

In the News

In an October 1, 2008 newspaper interview, Garnaut encouraged Australians to switch their diets from beef to kangaroo to help the climate. "For most of Australia's human history -- around 60,000 years -- kangaroo was the main source of meat. It could again become important," he said. [cite news
title=Australians urged to eat kangaroo
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7645969.stm
work=BBC News
date=2008-10-01
accessdate=2008-10-02]

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.garnautreview.org.au Garnaut Climate Change Review Official Website]