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Latest Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
Monash Progress Report 2021 – Goal 13

Monash Progress Report 2021 – Goal 13

Monash University Progress Report 2021 on the Sustainable Development Goals

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Research

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Monash Art Design and Architecture View

Monash Art, Design and Architecture’s research strives to enrich the human experience through transformational design and visual practice. Creative and critical research empowers us to reimagine the needs, challenges and aspirations of cities and drive meaningful change. Working with diverse communities and cultures, and across constructed and ecological environments, MADA's research helps to propel us all towards greater sustainability, understanding and equity. In its first issue of R:ADAR, MADA shows how its researchers in collaboration with government, industry and the community are delivering environmental, economic and social impact for Climate Action.

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).

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.

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.

2021 Publications Performance View

Mean Field Weighted Citation Impact of Monash Outputs: 2.42

Number of Monash Research Outputs: 208

Education

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Unit statistics and highlights View

In 2021, 117 units directly related to SDG13 were offered across Monash University, with a total enrolment of 5,929 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

Master of Science in Atmospheric Science View

Severe weather, droughts, climate change, and air pollution are but a few of the many atmospheric phenomena that affect society profoundly. Changes to our atmosphere, whether naturally caused or human induced, have an imprint on almost every sector of society including industry, farming, health, sport, recreation and everyday life. As a result, atmospheric science is a high-impact science affecting the wellbeing of the public as well as influencing the development of public policy through its predictions of future weather and climate.

This new two-year Master of Science in Atmospheric Science is designed to develop professional atmospheric scientist who are able to apply their science skills to better understanding, prediction and management of our environment.

The Climate Justice Clinic View

The Climate Justice Clinic gives students practical experience of a wide range of legal work in a number of commercial law practice areas (public law, administrative law, human rights, environment and planning law) with an overarching focus on climate justice. Students work with leading Australian environmental organisations, senior barristers working in Environment and Climate law, community organisations and campaign groups, and collaborate with community legal services throughout Victoria. The Climate Justice Clinic also helps students contextualise the clinics’ legal work within the broader climate justice movement, and features regular guest speakers from public and private sector law firms and environmental NGOs.

Engagement

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Fire to Flourish View

Fire to Flourish is a new five-year transdisciplinary program led by Monash University working at the intersection of disaster resilience and community development. In partnership with four communities across New South Wales and Victoria affected by the 2019/20 Australian bushfire season, the program supports communities to lead their own recovery, co-create foundations for long-term resilience and wellbeing, and disrupt cycles of entrenched disadvantage.

In 2021, the program on building strong foundations and relationships, and co-hosted two public events to learn from the experiences, ideas and wisdom of community members: a webinar on Community Leadership & Disaster Resilience: Research and Implications for Policy, and the Growing Community-led Disaster Resilience Forum. It also undertook a National Survey on Disaster Preparedness and Resilience, and released An Agenda for change: Community-led disaster resilience.

Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub View

The Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub researches and implements best practice approaches to communicating climate change, in partnership with leading science and media organisations. Their impact-focused projects aim to improve public understanding of climate change by delivering climate information to audiences through existing media infrastructure.

These projects include Climate Communicators, which produces simple, long-term climate graphics for Australian TV weather presenters; Changing Climates, which, in partnership with NewsCorp Australia, delivers hyperlocal climate and emissions information to local publications across Australia; and Climate Classrooms, which provides free, easily accessible lesson plans on climate science tailored to meet the needs of teachers teaching Years 7 to 12.

Jupiter Ionics View

A new Monash spin-out, Jupiter Ionics, has secured an exclusive licence to develop a patented technology for green ammonia first invented by the University's School of Chemistry. Ammonia is an essential ingredient in the global food system through its role in fertiliser production, but current technology typically produces around two tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of ammonia produced. The new technology uses an electrochemical process to produce ammonia by reducing nitrogen extracted from the air and combining it with hydrogen extracted from water, with power provided by renewable electricity.

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 Climate Alliance provides a central hub for universities to share the latest climate research with the public and enables greater collaboration between leading research teams, supporting global leaders, policy makers and industry in planning for and responding to climate change.

Climate Adaptation Mission View

The Climate Adaptation Mission, led by BehaviourWorks Australia (BWA) and its partners, explores how systemic behavioural public policy experiments could have a substantial impact on reducing projected harms from climate change. In 2021, it completed Phase 1 of the Climate Adaptation Mission: Scoping & Prioritisation, which involved coming to an agreement on the mission scope and choosing priority climate adaptation challenges to address throughout co-design behaviour change trials.

Monash Disaster Resilience Initiative View

The Monash Disaster Resilience Initiative focuses on preparing communities to strengthen their resilience through climate and disaster risk reduction. In 2021, MUDRI was a partner in the development of the Upper Beaconsfield Bushfire & Biodiversity Tool, which provides tailored, local information for residents in the Victorian towns of Upper Beaconsfield, Dewhurst and Guys Hill to make informed decisions about managing bushfire risks while protecting biodiversity on private property.

In addition, they joined up with the new Fire to Flourish program to organise the Forum on Growing Community-led Disaster Resilience and the Gender and Disaster Australia Conference, Gender Justice in Disaster: Inspiring Action.

The Monash/C2Zero Real Carbon Price Index View

The price of carbon emissions is a key driver in the global transition to a cleaner future. However, carbon prices vary widely across different jurisdictions, and global trends have been obfuscated. To bring greater clarity to policy-makers, researchers, investors, and the public at large, an international collaboration of experts in carbon markets and financial indices from Monash, C2Zero and SparkChange came together to develop the Real Carbon Price Index in 2021. The Index allows individuals and organisations to understand the costs around remediating their impact. It allows policymakers, regulators and governments to benchmark their position and progress. And it shows who the leaders and laggards are when it comes to climate change and sets base levels for new entrants and new activities.

Operations

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Low carbon energy View

In 2021, Monash University used 708,158 GJ of energy (gas and electricity) which includes 15,155 GJ of on-site solar renewable energy generation. Monash University also has a renewable energy power purchase agreement with the Murra Warra Wind Farm and purchased 108,900 GJ of off-site renewable energy in 2021. In 2021, 17.5% of energy use is from low carbon source (wind/solar).

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 2021, Monash has a $400 portfolio of climate bond certified assets.

Net Zero Emissions Target View

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