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Sustainable development
Monash University Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
Monash Progress Report 2020
Monash Progress Report 2020 – Goal 13

Monash Progress Report 2020 – Goal 13

Monash University Progress Report 2020 on the Sustainable Development Goals

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Research

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Decarbonisation Futures View

In 2020, Monash-hosted Climateworks Centre released its seminal report, Decarbonisation Futures, which shows how technologies in each sector can achieve climate goals in Australia while rebuilding the economy for a resilient future.

The report shows Australia can immediately accelerate deployment of mature and demonstration zero-emissions solutions, like renewable energy and electric vehicles, in sectors such as electricity, transport and buildings. The report also shows that Australia has entered the transformational decade for addressing climate change, and that transition can happen before 2050 with strong action by every level of government, businesses and individuals to support technology development, demonstration and deployment.

Planetary Health Division View

The Planetary Health Division, based at School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, is working to address the health of humanity in the context of dynamic social and environmental systems. The Division houses environmental and occupational health researchers, infectious disease epidemiologists and global health researchers, and its flagship programs include Climate, Air Quality Research; Global and Women's Health; Hazelwood Health Study; Infectious Diseases Epidemiology; and the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (MonCOEH).

ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes View

Monash is part of the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, an international research consortium of five Australian universities and a network of outstanding national and international partner organisations supported by the Australian Research Council.

The Centre works to improve our understanding of the processes that trigger or enhance extremes and build this understanding into our modelling systems. The improved predictions of climate extremes will help Australia cope with extremes now and in the future.

Atmosphere and Climate Research Group View

Monash Science has deep expertise and many scientists at the forefront of climate change research. This included the Atmosphere and Climate Research Group at the School of Earth, Atmosphere & Environment, which undertakes world-leading research in areas including boundary layers, climate change, clouds, convection, aerosols (including cloud seeding), mesoscale meteorology, numerical modelling, tropical meteorology, and bushfires and fire weather.

2020 Publications Performance View

Mean Field Weighted Citation Impact of Monash Outputs: 2.24

Number of Monash Research Outputs: 188

Education

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Climate Justice Law Clinic View

Law students participating in the Climate Justice Law Clinic have been learning to use their legal skills to address the urgent need for increased climate change mitigation action. Under the close supervision of the Clinical Supervisor, students have the opportunity to advise climate activists, climate NGOs and concerned citizens who wish to use legal tools and legal advocacy in their fight for climate justice.

Atmospheric Science Major View

Published annually.

Unit statistics and highlights View

In 2020, 108 units directly related to SDG13 were offered across Monash University, with a total enrolment of 8,534 students.

The units highlighted below are a small sample of the units at Monash relating to climate action:

BEX5200 Climate change and carbon management strategies
ECC3640 Economics of climate change
ENS5320 Climate change, energy and human security

Engagement

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International Universities Climate Alliance View

Monash is a founding member of the International Universities Climate Alliance, a network of leading climate research universities that seeks to support global leaders to meet the challenge of climate change through sharing evidence-based information on climate research. The Alliance issued its first declaration ahead of the G20 Summit in November 2020, calling on world leaders to use the post-COVID recovery to implement measures to counteract climate change, warning that failure to do so will lock in catastrophic consequences for generations to come.

Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub View

The Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub conducts social research and leads impact focused projects to build media and policy infrastructure that adequately addresses climate change in Australia. Their impact-focused projects aim to improve public understanding of climate change by delivering climate information to audiences through existing media infrastructure. These include Climate Communicators, which produces simple, long-term climate graphics for Australian weather presenters, and Changing Climates, which, in partnership with NewsCorp Australia, delivers hyperlocal climate and emissions information to local publications across Australia.

Monash Disaster Resilience Initative View

Fire, drought, flood, storm, and the long-term impacts of extreme weather events present an ever-increasing challenge for all Australians. We recognise the rapidly growing need for preparing communities to help themselves before, during and after such events.

The Monash Disaster Resilience Initiative focuses on preparing communities to strengthen their resilience through climate and disaster risk reduction. In 202, MUDRI released an update of its flagship resource, the Compendium of Victorian Community-based Resilience Building Case Studies.

UN Climate Change Conference (COP) engagement View

Monash has been an official Observer of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since 2016, and sends a delegation of staff and students to the annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP). Our delegates speak at events including press conferences, panel discussions and side events, and showcase Monash’s extensive work on climate change. While COP26 was postponed from November 2020 to November 2021, the COP stakeholder group continued to meet regularly throughout 2020.

Operations

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Net Zero emissions target View

In 2017, Monash University made a commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2030.

Low carbon energy View

In 2020, Monash University used 738,505 GJ of energy which includes 9,907 GJ of on-site renewable energy generation.

Monash University also has a renewable energy power purchase agreement with the Murra Warra Wind Farm and purchased 367,200 GJ of off-site renewable energy in 2020.

Low carbon finance View

In 2016, Monash was the first university in the world to issue a certified by the Climate Bond Initiative (CBI) securing $218 (AUD) million to finance sustainability and clean energy projects on campus. As of 2020, Monash has a $400 portfolio of climate bond certified assets.