Australian National University's Centre for Climate Change Law and Policy was opened in June 2008 by Federal Environment Minister, Hon. Peter Garrett.
The ANU Centre for Climate Law and Policy (CCLP) was established in response to a growing awareness of legal and policy issues for Australia, including signing the Kyoto Protocol, the design of a new carbon trading scheme and the project approval of new coal mines and power stations. Headed by director Tim Bonyhady and associate director Andrew Macintosh, the Centre will carry out research on the full range of climate law and policy issues including energy law, regulation of transport, land use change and forestry emissions, international climate law and climate litigation.
The Centre was launched with speeches from Peter Garrett, ANU vice-chancellor professor Ian Chubb, ANU College of Law dean professor Michael Coper, Centre director Tim Bonyhady and Martijn Wilder, head of Baker & McKenzie's Climate Change and Clean Energy Practice and one of the world's leading commercial climate lawyers.
Hon. Peter Garrett said, "I am very pleased that this new Centre for Climate Law and Policy within the university's College of Law will be able to prepare students and, through its work, prepare all of us for the future by focusing on this issue which is front and centre in the public and political debate, and where scientific policy and the legal body of work around it continues to grow."
The dean of the ANU College of Law said, "This Centre for Climate Law and Policy really is an example of our determination to focus on pressing national and international issues, and is quite consistent with our distinct ethos in the ANU College of Law of being concerned not just with the law as it is but on forming the law and using the law to provide a framework for solving social problems. It is also consistent with the focus of the ANU as a whole on climate issues. The legal side of it is just one fragment, as you can imagine, of integrated approach to climate change."
CCLP director Tim Bonyhady said the Centre would play a vital role in meeting the challenges of a fast-evolving sector. "The ANU Centre for Climate Law and Policy will be at the forefront of climate law," he said. "For too long, questions of climate change have been dominated by scientists and economists. But climate change also raises profound legal questions for all levels of government who need to address not just how we go about reducing our greenhouse emissions, but how we adapt to climate change. The Centre has been created to explore and research those issues," he said.
Professor Bonyhady added that the ANU Centre for Climate Law and Policy was built on the University’s strength in meeting the challenges posed by climate change. "The ANU has been at the forefront of research and teaching of environmental law for the last 35 years. This Centre builds on that strength and reflects the gravity and significance of the challenges the world faces through climate change."
Martijn Wilder from Baker & McKenzie, who is to play a significant role within the CCLP, praised the collaboration between the University and the legal firm. "We are delighted to enter this sponsorship with our national university. Baker & McKenzie has been at the forefront of the development of climate law and policy, and we are pleased to be able to combine our climate change expertise with a community activity to contribute to climate change research."
Martijn Wilder added, "This partnership affirms Baker & McKenzie's commitment to addressing global legal and policy issues within a wider community and educational context. This initiative will affirm Australia’s growing role in the global initiative to tackle climate change. It will also play an important role in the development of climate law and policy, which underpins the development of carbon markets and measures to reduce global levels of greenhouse emissions.
"We as a Firm have done a lot in the climate change area, in fact, we established a practice about 10 years ago now. In many ways, what we have been doing over the last 10 years is looking at an area of law that is very much undefined. So a lot of the work that we've been doing is redeveloping legal systems and part of the reason this Centre is so important is that in Australia we are on the fringe of what will be an extremely dramatic change in a legal landscape by introducing emissions trading schemes and other measures that the government is producing. It is also fundamentally important because what underlies the response to climate change globally is in fact legal systems and policy systems.
"You don't get companies to change their behavior without legal systems — and emissions trading schemes will be a key part of achieving that.
"We would just like to say we are delighted to be the founding sponsor, we're looking forward very much to developing the Centre with our ANU colleagues, and taking the forward the Centre as a Centre of intellectual excellence in the climate change area in Australia."