Environments for Exchange: A critical study of emerging Australian carbon and biodiversity markets TPR
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RE&D Research Seminar
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Abstract The concept of ‘ecosystem services’ emerged in the 1970s as a means of communicating the dependence of human societies on functioning environmental systems. Since then, it has become a mainstream (even dominant) paradigm within international environmental governance. Globally, a diverse range of ecosystem services have been valued in financial terms and are increasingly subject to commodification and exchange. Within Australia, policymakers have expressed a clear preference for the use of ecosystem service markets as a response to some of Australia’s most pressing environmental policy challenges including climate change and biodiversity loss. The creation of robust environmental markets in novel commodities such as carbon and biodiversity credits has in turn required the development of appropriate biometric accounting techniques to quantify and ‘value’ the services provided by in-situ environments. Drawing on the fields of political ecology and science and technology studies, my research will explore the use of the specialised measurement and accounting methods used by environmental professionals to generate carbon and biodiversity credits within emerging Australian environmental markets. This thesis proposal review seminar will outline a research project that will identify the integrity issues faced by these markets, the policy challenges confronting government agencies charged with regulating them and the situated work practices of the professionals and firms which participate in the creation and exchange of environmental commodities.
Biography Alexander Cox is a PhD candidate within the Resources, Environment and Development Group at the Crawford School of Public Policy. His research interests include the commodification of ecosystem services and the use of market based instruments in environmental governance. His PhD research aims to explore the ways in which environmental measurement methodologies and natural capital accounting facilitate the creation of fungible carbon and biodiversity commodities within Australian environmental markets. He is a member of the ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions, the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand and the Carbon Market Institute.
Panel members: Dr Sarah Milne (Chair and Supervisor), Dr Sango Mahanty, Dr Carina Wyborn, Dr Rebecca Pearse, Dr Caroline Schuster
Updated: 29 March 2024/Responsible Officer: Crawford Engagement/Page Contact: CAP Web Team