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  5. arrow_forward_ios C-SERC research themes

C-SERC research themes

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  • Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre (C-SERC)
    • arrow_forward About C-SERC
    • C-SERC Doctoral Program
      • arrow_forward The art and cultural continuum of urban Aboriginal agriculture
      • arrow_forward Bio-politics of climate change governance
      • arrow_forward The Blue Economy in West Africa: livelihoods of small-scale fisheries
      • arrow_forward Climate change and civil conflict
      • arrow_forward Climate Movement Strategy
      • arrow_forward Climate scepticism in the media
      • arrow_forward Environmental movements: bridging the north-south divide
      • arrow_forward Feminist Energy Democracy
      • arrow_forward Goro nickel mine: An environmental experiment in New Caledonia
      • arrow_forward The Imitation Economy
      • arrow_forward The impact of coral reef restoration projects on coastal communities in the Philippines
      • arrow_forward Implications of Fisheries Governance for Livelihood and Well-being: Current Perspectives from Ghana’s Small-scale Fisheries
      • arrow_forward Mining the high frontier
      • arrow_forward New Environmental Knowledge: Large Dam in Northeast India
      • arrow_forward Policy disconnections in the regulation of sustainable seafood in Australia
      • arrow_forward Social legitimacy of decarbonisation of energy
      • arrow_forward The Sustainability of the Global Food System: A Case Study on Australian Wheat and Indonesian Instant Noodles
      • arrow_forward The Weather Diaries
      • arrow_forward Wind farm development in Australia and Taiwan
    • arrow_forward C-SERC members
    • C-SERC research projects
      • arrow_forward Aboriginal land and economic activity
      • arrow_forward Blue economy
      • arrow_forward Circular economy opportunities for fisheries and aquaculture in Australia
      • arrow_forward Coal Rush
      • arrow_forward Coastal livelihood transitions and China’s Belt and Road Initiative 2020-2022
      • arrow_forward Commonwealth fisheries Indigenous engagement strategy
      • arrow_forward Decarbonising electricity
      • arrow_forward Democracy and global energy transition
      • arrow_forward Developing cost-effective socio-economic monitoring for inland recreational fisheries in NSW
      • arrow_forward Developing social and economic monitoring and evaluation systems in Indonesian tuna fisheries
      • arrow_forward Disruptive Technology
      • arrow_forward The Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecologies 2021
      • arrow_forward Handbooks for fisheries managers to address the social dimensions of seafood production in Pacific Island countries
      • arrow_forward Heat in the Streets
      • arrow_forward Heat at Work: United Workers Union (2020-2021)
      • arrow_forward Institutional effectiveness and political economy of coral reef restoration in the Philippines
      • arrow_forward Monitoring framework for social and economic development contributions from Pacific tuna industries
      • arrow_forward Scaling up community based sea cucumber culture in Vietnam and the Philippines
      • arrow_forward Surfacing urban wetlands in two urban renewal sites in Sydney
    • arrow_forward C-SERC research themes
    • arrow_forward Events in C-SERC
    • arrow_forward Climate justice podcast series
    • arrow_forward Recent publications
Protestors, placards, aboriginal flag

Our research spans a wide range of projects. These themes are strong areas of focus.

Climate justice and energy transitions

Wind turbine, blue sky

Driven primarily by the combustion of fossil fuels as the foundational energy source of industrial societies, the disruption of the planetary carbon cycle and its consequences - global heating, ocean acidificiation, extreme climate phenomena and ecosystem deterioration - is the greatest threat we face as a civilisation. Until recently climate and energy policy discourse was dominated by technical debates around science and orthodox economics. Recognising that those who have benefited least from fossil-energy intensive development are often also those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, the concept of climate justice gained political traction in the early 2000s and is now dominant in social movement and NGO discourse, and at UN climate conferences. With the growing present-day impacts of climate change,  policy discourse is now centred on intergenerational ethics, as global mobilisations of youth and Indigenous people have foregrounded the right to a viable future and the preservation of the planet for our children, grandchildren and future generations.

The idea of climate justice has developed expansively, informing and transforming a wide range of academic research disciplines, policy institutions and civil society projects. These encompass the local and global politics of equitable energy transition, the challenges of halting fossil fuel extraction and establishing renewable energy infrastructures, the urgency of addressing the immediate social and ecological impacts of climate change, including the impact of climate anxiety, the ongoing need to overcome misinformation and climate policy obstruction, litigation against fossil fuel extraction and government inaction, efforts at decarbonising finance and at charting proactive decarbonising agendas, via just transitions to energy democracy and ‘green new deals’. Centre members seek to expand and transform the frontiers of climate justice research to support the theory and practice of energy democracy, and are engaged in research, often with external partners, across many of these fields.

Fisheries, maritime and coastal communities

Fish in a basket

Photograph: Michael Fabinyi 

Marine resources provide food to urban populations and livelihoods to coastal communities, whose lifeworlds are under pressure from the combined effects of rapid social change, overfishing, illegal and destructive harvesting methods, industrialisation of the sea including offshore mineral and hydrocarbon extraction, geopolitical tension over coastal/oceanic spaces and the rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification driven by climate change.

C-SERC researchers specialise in researching fisheries and aquaculture, maritime environments and societies, and the political, cultural and economic practices related to these, from local sustainable development and marine conservation and restoration initiatives through to maritime security and global governance themes such as the Blue Economy. Our researchers are recognised for their expertise in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and the Solomon Islands.

Indigenous land and justice

Protestors black and white

Photograph: Dean Sewell, Sydney protest

The rights, interests and knowledges of Indigenous communities are now at the forefront of debates around climate and environmental policy.

We engage in scholarship that is driven by Indigenous interests, collaborating with First Nations scholars and communities in Australia and worldwide. Drawing on comparative Indigenous history to contribute to nation-building, sovereignty and self-determination, key areas of research are land and water rights, the effects of climate change and extractivism on Indigenous lands and communities, the contribution of Indigenous peoples to environment and heritage management, and prospects for renewable energy development and sustainable resource management on Aboriginal land.

Work, climate and environment

Firies in bush fire, dark red light

Photograph: Dean Sewell, Green Wattle fire

Environmental change, including climate change, is most directly felt by people who cannot escape its impacts. Climate change is contributing to higher average temperatures, higher humidity, longer heatwaves and disrupted weather, as well as more intense drought, storms, floods and bushfires. Millions of workers worldwide, are directly affected, including through an epidemic of work-related ‘heat stress’. Climate change is fast becoming an urgent public health issue and a major threat to safe and decent working conditions. In 2019 the ILO stated reports that without action to arrest the problem climate impacts would ‘destroy jobs and livelihoods on an unprecedented scale’.

Researchers at the centre have been partnering with trade unions and think tanks to advance new research into how to tackle these issues on the ground in workplaces and through policy action.

Civic ecologies, healthy environments and urban transformations

Garden box in urban street

An edible verge garden in Green Square. Photograph: Ilaria Vanni.

The majority of the world's population now live and work in cities. Whilst the challenges faced differ greatly between North and South, civic engagement and ecological stewardship of urban spaces is increasingly crucial to the capacity of societies to transform the infrastructures of everyday life in response to the causes within and effects upon urban communities of climate change and ecological erosion.

C-SERC members are currently researching the efforts of urban communities to reimagine more sustainable urban ecologies and infrastructures, as well as the ways in which the rise of temporary, informal, and irregular employment intersects with the impacts of climate change: such as the impact of extreme heat events on workers in the home care, education, health care, logistics, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

Banner photograph: Dean Sewell

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and the Boorooberongal People of the Dharug Nation upon whose ancestral lands our campuses now stand. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands. 

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