Finding solutions to climate change

Combining science with economics is one of the keys to finding solutions to some of the complex problems associated with climate change, according to Associate Professor Caroline Sullivan.

Professor Sullivan is an environmental economist with Southern Cross University's School of Environmental Science and Management at the Lismore campus, and also a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment, where she worked before coming to SCU.

With climate change now a priority, Professor Sullivan said it was vital that the more developed countries such as Australia took the lead.

She has worked on climate change issues for several years and has recently contributed to a report 'Guidance on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change', prepared by the Economic Commission for Europe, launched at the United National Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this month.

"Countries like Australia can and should take the lead. For many developing countries, their first line of argument is why aren't the developed countries doing something to reduce their emissions?" Professor Sullivan said.

"Why do we have to wait and see what's going to happen? We already know there's going to be an economic impact whatever happens and people will have to change. This is simply a fact of life in a world where humans are already consuming more than their share of the world's resources.

"We can still do the things we want to do, but we need to be more efficient and responsible for the fact that these resources are limited. If not, at some point in time, there is going to be a big explosion of unrest and discontent that will come our way, no matter where we live."

Professor Sullivan's career has taken her from Europe to South America, to Asia and Africa, and now to Australia. This global experience has given her a first-hand glimpse of the problems associated with the lack of resources, such as water.

Born in Ireland, Professor Sullivan grew up in Nigeria before completing her secondary schooling in England. She completed a degree in economics and psychology and then a post-graduate teaching degree, which led to work in a teacher training college in Guyana, in South America.

"Guyana was one of the poorest countries in the world at the time, even though it had an incredibly rich environment," Professor Sullivan said.

"Most of the teachers would be going out to places where there were no resources, no desks and no proper buildings. It was a real challenge to be a good teacher there.

"The country is about the size of Britain and the population less than one million. Poverty was unnecessary there, but the country had been exploited by unfair trade agreements. In those days (the 1970s), it was sometimes hard to get basic goods and for a while there was a feeling that there would be a revolution.

"I went into the rainforest most weekends, and spent a lot of time visiting and living with the Amerindians, the Indigenous people in that region. I started to think a lot about economics and the fact that if you wanted to influence people's lives, economics was really important."

After leaving Guyana Professor Sullivan lived in Colombia, Greece and England before moving to Brunei, where she worked for a total of nine years with the Ministry of Education, developing economics programs at different institutions. She also taught development economics to a number of members of the Brunei Royal Household, including Crown Prince Haji Al Muhtadee Billah.

"There were a lot of similarities between Guyana and Brunei," she said. "Their environments are very similar, yet their national economic situations are very different. I found economic development such an interesting process that I went back to the UK to take a Masters degree in economic development planning, with a dissertation on the economic potential of ecotourism.

"Back in 1990 it was quite a new concept that environmentally based tourism could be really important to the developing world, and it can be a brilliant mechanism for voluntary income transfer from rich to poor nations. That was my first introduction to research and I then decided to do a PhD.

"I had to give up my great job in Brunei to go and do my PhD. People thought I was mad, but it was absolutely brilliant to go and do that after having worked for many years.

"Doing your PhD is just about the only time in your career when you have freedom to follow one specific idea. I investigated the economic value of non-timber forest products, for Amerindian people in Guyana."

After completing her PhD, Professor Sullivan worked for eight years with the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, where she became head of Water Policy and Management. While there, she led the development of the Water Poverty Index, a holistic water management tool which looks not only at availability of water resources, but also access to them, capacity for management, efficiency of use and environmental impacts.

"It is really a way of prioritising investment. Tanzania , or Kenya for example, are very dry countries with big populations, but there is no structure or transparent framework to help make decisions about the investments required to provide for the allocation of water," she said.

"We need water management processes that have a sound scientific grounding and are not just about where the water is located. That is something that appeals to people, and that approach is now being used in various ways in a lot of different countries."

Following on from that work Professor Sullivan developed a Climate Vulnerability Index, used to identify those who are most vulnerable to climate impacts on water resources.

In 2008, she moved to Australia, taking up a position at Southern Cross University.

"I had been planning to come to Australia for many years, but it was difficult to find the right time, as work was so busy. In 2008 I decided not to wait any longer, and I was lucky to see the advert for the position at Southern Cross University," she said.

Combining her research with teaching is one of the attractions of her work at SCU. Professor Sullivan teaches environmental economics and has contributed as a guest lecturer in other units. She has also recently completed a project for World Vision Australia on climate adaptation in developing countries, and another project for the African Development Bank on development effectiveness in water and sanitation in Sub Saharan Africa.

"This kind of work really makes you think about your life and how lucky you are," she said.

"I always want to encourage students to think about how well off they are, living here in Australia. I think young people are very concerned about the rest of the world, but they don't always get a chance to know enough about it. It is important that we don't forget those elsewhere who need our help, just to have a decent life."

Photo: Associate Professor Caroline Sullivan is an environmental economist with Southern Cross University's School of Environmental Science and Management, and also a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment.