Living With 2°C Plus: Living with wildfire

Description

Do institutions constrain our ability to manage risk reduction and recovery?

While emergency services have improved the way they deal with extreme events and have reduced loss of life, challenges remain in how, on one hand, we cut risks and prepare, and on the other hand, how we recover.

Is our vision and agenda for risk and recovery limited by the institutions who manage these events?

By exploring recent wildfire events in the US and Australia, this roundtable will highlight different approaches and the extent to which our institutional silos constrain options and opportunities for risk reduction and recovery.

For US participants, the roundtable will take place on Wednesday 25 June, 4.30pm Pacific Time, and 7.30pm U.S East Coast Time.

The webinar will conclude with an audience Q&A section.

Panellists

Professor Louise Comfort, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh

As California braces itself for the next fire season, Prof Comfort and her colleagues are working on a project, “resilience and recovery by design”, that links concepts learned from the devastating Los Angeles fire earlier this year, to rebuilding the community to a more resilient standard that is less vulnerable to the next wildfire.

Professor Matthew R. Auer, Dean, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia

Prof Auer is currently researching how reductions in federally-funded resilience efforts, fire suppression efforts and/or post-disaster response are affecting planning and response efforts at state and local level in the United States. He will discuss early findings.

Professor Briony Rogers, Monash University

Prof Rogers is professor of Systems Transformation at Monash University, CEO of the Fire to Flourish program and Director of Monash Sustainable Development Institute.

A five-year program partnering with communities to co-create tailored solutions for community-led disaster resilience, Fire to Flourish is now in its final year. The program has seen good results from a model that prioritises community and Indigenous leadership, participatory governance and community-led grantmaking, resulting in significantly strengthened disaster resilience. The program was awarded the prestigious National Community Award at the Resilient Australia Awards in 2024.

Associate Professor Janet Stanley, University of Melbourne

Prof Stanley is an Honorary Associate Professor in the University of Melbourne’s School of Design, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Hiroshima.

Prof Stanley’s 2021 book Feeling the Heat: International perspectives on the prevention of wildfire ignition argues that if we are to reduce the trend of increasing incidence of wildfires, we need to utilise an expanded range of prevention approaches ranging from climate mitigation and adaptation to psychological and socio-economic factors that drive fires. In particular, she advocates coordinated and collaborative approaches across sectors, levels of government and international organisation. Her recent work has focused on climate adaptation.

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Oran Young, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara

Prof Young’s scientific work encompasses research on collective choice and social institutions and international environmental governance. He will draw on his vast experience of international governance and environmental institutions to both respond to the panelists and bring together common themes and thoughts for future action.

Professor Dan Guttman, co-chair, International Panel of the National Academy of Public Administration, Washington DC

Prof Guttman is also professor at the Tianjin University Law School, an adjunct professor at the Fudan University - London School of Economics Institute for Global Public Policy, and fellow of the New York University US-Asia Law Institute. He will summarise and facilitate audience questions.

Organisers

Green Lab, Impact Labs, Monash Business School, in collaboration with the US National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).