Researching Terrestrial Carbon Sinks and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Australia’s Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting Dr Janette A Lindesay Education Manager, Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting Senior Lecturer, School of Resources, Environment & Society, The Australian National University

International attempts to address the problem of the enhanced greenhouse effect and climate change are currently focused around the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A new round of talks on the Protocol, currently underway in Milan, Italy, includes a significant focus on the use of terrestrial carbon sinks to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Recognizing that terrestrial sinks would be an important part of any future strategies to address the greenhouse problem, a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Greenhouse Accounting was established in Australia in 1999 to focus national research efforts in this area.

The CRC for Greenhouse Accounting brings scientists in universities and research institutions together with industry and the policy community to investigate the characteristics and magnitudes of terrestrial carbon sinks across Australia; quantify non-CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture; provide scientific input to Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System; and contribute to better understanding of land management for carbon sequestration. The CRC also works to ensure that industry decision makers and government policy makers are able to act on the basis of up-to-date scientific information.

This seminar introduces the research and education/outreach programs of the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting, highlighting some of the significant scientific results obtained in the four years since its establishment. The international and national policy environments in which the CRC operates are also considered, since it is these environments that create both the opportunities for and constraints on the CRC’s research and its applications.

Dr Janette A Lindesay is a climatologist with research interests in low-frequency climate variability, the El Niño Southern Oscillation, rainfall variability, and climate impacts. Her wide-ranging research interests have led to numerous invitations to speak at conferences on subjects ranging from desert ecology, to wildland fire, to water resource management. Her academic career of more than 20 years began in South Africa, where she obtained her PhD degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and continues in Australia, where she holds a Senior Lectureship in Climatology at The Australian National University. She is also Education Manager in the national Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting. Dr Lindesay has published four academic texts, a number of book chapters, and more than 50 academic papers. She is on the editorial boards of two international atmospheric science journals, and is actively involved in Australian State of the Environment reporting.