New Climate Change Research Institute For Victoria

MEDIA RELEASE
26 June 2007

Working towards a New Zealand Climate Change Institute

Victoria University of Wellington is to host a new interdisciplinary Climate Change Research Institute that will work with other New Zealand organisations, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Pat Walsh announced today.

Professor Walsh says New Zealand's science community has identified climate change as the most serious long-term issue facing society for some time, and that the Institute aimed to make the most of national expertise and resources.

"Victoria is uniquely placed in New Zealand, and in some respects internationally, to support a community of researchers and teachers with close links to like-minded institutions in order to seek the best ways of adapting to and helping to mitigate the rapidly growing challenge of climate change," he says.

Professor Walsh says the University's decision to invest an additional $300,000 per annum to supplement existing climate change research and to establish the Institute follows widespread interest generated by the Climate Change and Governance Conference hosted last year by Victoria.

"Informal discussions with many people over the last year have indicated a need for an Institute that could improve the interface between climate change research and policy and fill gaps in existing knowledge.

"It is the University's wish to discuss a suitable formal structure for a high-level research strategy to help guide development of policy options for dealing with climate change now, at a time when the need for such a strategy is becoming increasingly urgent," he says.

The initiative follows a recent assessment of Victoria's capabilities in all aspects of climate change research and policy by Dr Martin Manning, a New Zealand climate scientist who has been working for some years with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Colorado.

Victoria researchers Professors Peter Barrett and Jonathan Boston, and Associate Professor Ralph Chapman are currently talking with potential collaborators among New Zealand research institutions and organisations. The University will be inviting leaders of other organisations with research interests in climate change for a meeting next month to seek practical steps to establish the new Institute.

Professor Barrett, Director of the University's Antarctic Research Centre, says the next step is to engage existing research groups in discussions around potential collaborations that would increase the value of current research efforts.

"We will also be looking for ways in which rapidly evolving policy needs can be met by focused research and new research results communicated quickly and accurately where appropriate to policy making," Professor Barrett says.

For more information contact Professor Peter Barrett: 04 465 5336

Issued by Victoria University of Wellington Public Affairs

ENDS

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