Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Garnaut Climate Change Review Final Report

Garnaut Climate Change Review Final ReportProfessor Garnaut has delivered the "Garnaut Climate Change Review Final Report" on climate change to the Australian Government. The key recommendation is a reduction of 25 per cent in emissions by 2020 from 2000 levels. The full text of the review is available online, along with appendices and other material. Unfortunately, the printed version of this Australian report is being published in the UK, not Australia. The 720 page book will weight about 1.3 kilograms and if air freighted to Australia will generate the equivalent of 100 kg of CO2 emissions per copy.

Report online

Currently only a PDF version of the report is available, but a HTML version is due out 15 October 2008. Hopefully the HTML will be correctly formatted in accordance with web accessibility standards, unlike the current web site.

Preliminary pages

Chapters

  1. A decision-making framework: (PDF, 482kb)
  2. Understanding climate science: (PDF, 1.24mb)
  3. Emissions in the Platinum Age: (PDF, 1.74mb)
  4. Projecting global climate change: (PDF, 3.58mb)
  5. Projecting Australian climate change: (PDF, 301kb)
  6. Climate change impacts on Australia: (PDF, 293kb)
  7. Australia's emissions in a global context: (PDF, 1.15mb)
  8. Assessing the international response: (PDF, 228kb)
  9. Towards global agreement: (PDF, 497kb)
  10. Deepening global collaboration: (PDF, 209kb)
  11. Costing climate change and its avoidance: (PDF, 530kb)
  12. Targets and trajectories: (PDF, 245kb)
  13. An Australian policy framework: (PDF, 113kb)
  14. Australia's emissions trading scheme: (PDF, 414kb)
  15. Adaptation and mitigation measures for Australia: (PDF, 192kb)
  16. Sharing the burden in Australia: (PDF, 260kb)
  17. Information barriers to known technologies: (PDF, 184kb)
  18. The innovation challenge: (PDF, 242kb)
  19. Network infrastructure: (PDF, 589kb)
  20. Transforming energy: (PDF, 1.28mb)
  21. Transforming transport: (PDF, 718kb)
  22. Transforming rural land use: (PDF, 638kb)
  23. Towards a low-emissions economy: (PDF, 655kb)
  24. Fateful choices: (PDF, 56kb)

2 comments:

Tom Worthington said...

Just noticed an error in my calculations, the figure should be 100 kg, not 200 kg of CO2 equivalent from each printed copy of Professor Garnaut's report.

The report is 720 pages. Assuming it is printed on 360 sheets of A5 80gsm paper, it will weight about 1.3 kilograms. The average passenger on a return flight London to Sydney generates 11,149kgCO2. Assuming a 70 kg passenger, this is about 80 kgCO2 one way per kilo. Multiplying 80 kgCO2 per kilo by 1.3 kg per book gives 104 kgCO2 per book.

In my original calculation I used the CO2 figure for a return flight to London, thus doubling the estimate.

But this may not be far from the truth. I have known publishers to do things like print the book in Singapore, air freight it to the UK, re-pack and then air freight to Australia, thus almost doubling the climate impact.

ps: I recommend a visit to the Cambridge University Press bookstore if visiting Cambridge.

Tom Worthington said...

Professor Garnaut's "Garnaut Climate Change Review Final Report" is now available online in web format, as well as a printed book. The web version is much easier to read online, than the previous PDF version (which is still available). The web version is in a suitable format for viewing on screen, even on a hand held device, and passed an automated Level double A accessibility test. But the web version is not perfect: it failed HTML validation.