Lockie, Stewart (2010) Neoliberal regimes of environmental governance: climate change, biodiversity and agriculture in Australia. In: Redclift, Michael R., and Woodgate, Graham , (eds.) The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 364-377.

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Abstract

In his 2008 report to the Australian government, economic adviser Ross Garnaut argued that, on the balance of probabilities, continued growth in atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations will heighten the risk of dangerous climate change. Echoing the 2007 report of UK economic adviser Nicholas Stern, Garnaut went on to argue that delays in action to address global climate change will impose greater costs, in the long term, than will serious and immediate measures to reduce anthropogenic GHG emissions and adapt to unavoidable climate impacts. While the Stern and Garnaut reports have attracted their critics (many of which focus on technical aspects of the analyses), there can be little doubt that they have played a major role in shifting the momentum in political debate away from so-called 'climate-change sceptics'. Further, despite considerable uncertainty over the magnitude, timing and distribution of future climate-change impacts, average temperatures in Australia have already risen 0.9°C since 1910 while streamflows into the water supplies of Australia's major cities have fallen to between 25 and 65 percent of their long-term average over the last decade (Garnaut, 2008). For many Australians, the notion of climate change has become less an artefact of arcane scientific theorizing and more a way to explain their own experience of water restrictions, severe weather events and rising food prices. Failure to grasp the rising public expectation of political leadership on this issue is recognized as one of the factors behind the then-incumbent Australian government's loss at the 2007 general election (Stevens, 2007).

Item ID:	30849
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-1-84844-088-3
Keywords:	environment, environmental geography, environmental politics and policy, environmental sociology, politics and public policy, environmental politics and policy, social policy and sociology, sociology and sociological theory
Funders:	Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants:	ARC DP0664599
Date Deposited:	02 Dec 2014 02:54
FoR Codes:	16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1608 Sociology > 160804 Rural Sociology @ 50% 16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1608 Sociology > 160801 Applied Sociology, Program Evaluation and Social Impact Assessment @ 50%
SEO Codes:	96 ENVIRONMENT > 9605 Ecosystem Assessment and Management > 960504 Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Environments @ 30% 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9608 Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity > 960804 Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity @ 50% 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9606 Environmental and Natural Resource Evaluation > 960601 Economic Incentives for Environmental Protection @ 20%
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