The needs of local communities are at risk of being overlooked as Australia grapples with how to adapt to climate change, according to leading climate change adaptation experts.

The finding follows a series of recent meetings of national leaders hosted by Future Earth Australia, a program of the Australian Academy of Science.

Leaders from across the private and finance sectors, all levels of government, Indigenous communities, land management, social services and universities in all states and territories gathered from 13 to 16 July 2020 for ‘Securing Australia’s Future: Reimagining Climate Adaptation’.

The meetings, which come ahead of a planned National Adaptation Summit in 2021, took stock of Australia’s successes, failures, opportunities and pathways for adapting to a changing climate, with a focus on the role of community-led approaches to adaptation.

Australian National University Emeritus Professor Stephen Dovers said there has long been a national focus on climate science, when what was needed was a shift to also prioritise the social adaptation needs for local communities.

“One example is the need to retrofit housing for variable climates,” said Emeritus Professor Dovers, who is past Chair of the Steering Committee of Future Earth Australia.

“Some local communities feel resilient and well-adapted to looming climate change shocks, but not others. We know that there is a desire among local communities to engage in the planning that is underway to adapt to a future that will see a drastically different climate and environment.”

University of Sydney Professor David Schlosberg said meeting participants found that a forward-looking approach to adaptation requires engaging community values and vulnerabilities, in addition to climate risks, and to be working towards an actionable and tangible agenda that benefits local communities.

“Good adaptation policy requires recognition of both the variety of knowledge types necessary to build adaptation pathways, and the role of different sectors—economic, social, environmental and cultural—in developing and implementing policy and action,” said Professor Schlosberg.

Meeting participants also found:

• there is a clear role for top down leadership from the Australian Government, in conjunction with well supported and financed local or regional ‘bottom up’ initiatives
• a strong policy framework is necessary from governments at all levels, to enable the necessary and broader social and community engagement.

Future Earth Australia Director, Dr Tayanah O’Donnell, said adaptation had come into sharp focus in the wake of the unprecedented bushfire season experienced in the summer of 2019–20, and now the COVID-19 pandemic, with both having ongoing, profound impacts on our wellbeing and economy.

“Effective adaptation in Australia acknowledges that increasing bushfire risk is only one dimension of climate change adaptation. Coastal inundation, storms, drought, heatwaves, business viability in a low carbon economy, biosecurity issues, and increased threats to human health, also demand coordinated attention,” Dr O’Donnell said.

“The bushfires and COVID-19 are major disruptions which have presented an unusual opportunity to consider how Australian society can prepare and act to adapt to these complex challenges.

“These roundtables are the start of a longer conversation and national agenda setting strategy being led by Future Earth Australia at the Australian Academy of Science.”

The National Adaptation Summit in 2021 will be hosted by the University of Sydney, Western Sydney University and Future Earth Australia.

Future Earth Australia has today opened public submissions on this topic. The consultation, which is open until 30 October 2020, seeks contributions on the successes, failures, opportunities and pathways for adaptation, with a particular interest in learning about community-led approaches taking place.

More information on the initiative

The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped Australian delegates to the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting participating in four days of online discussion and debates with Nobel laureates and other young researchers from around the world at the Lindau Online Science Days. The delegates are recipients of the SIEF–AAS Fellowship to the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting, an annual gathering of bright young researchers from around the world and dozens of Nobel prize winners in Lindau, Germany

The 2020 interdisciplinary-themed 70th meeting has been postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic but the 11 Australian participants took part in the Online Science Days from 28 June to 1 July. Five delegates additionally participated in the Sciathon, a 48 hour science marathon to tackle topics under three major themes: implementing the Lindau guidelines, capitalism after coronavirus, and communicating climate change.

Australian delegate Dr Eugene Sachkou from the University of Queensland was in the winning group of the communicating climate change section of the Sciathon. Their project suggests using a ‘big data approach’ to identify influencers on social media who would have the most effective reach for climate change communication. 

Coastal climate researcher Ms Nicole Foster from the University of Adelaide, who posted about her experience on her blog, said “My favourite aspect of the entire experience was that I was able to make connections with scientists around the world regardless of time zones and technology. This has made me so excited for to see what can happen when we meet in person next year.”

And materials chemist Dr Wenyue Zhou from RMIT, describing the experience of meeting Nobel laureates online, said “The Online Science Days really helped me prepare myself for next year’s meeting. Before this, I was excited but very nervous about meeting the Nobel laurates…Attending the Online Science Days made them very familiar to me. Now I see they are human beings, extremely kind, intelligent, humorous human beings.”

The Academy was also featured in the Academic Partners Expo Booth, where we highlighted the experiences of past attendees and Nobel Laureate and Academy Fellow Professor Brian Schmidt in a short video, and gave a presentation followed by a Q&A session with Academy Fellow Professor Jim Williams.

The SIEF–AAS Fellowships are supported by the Science and Industry Endowment Fund. Find out more about the Lindau Aussies.

With much of the nation focused on the loss of lives and the destruction of property and wildlife from last summer’s bushfires, the significant damage to Australian soil may have gone unnoticed by many.

With our agricultural productivity and the recovery of native vegetation now at stake, soil experts say that more work is crucial to helping this essential resource recover. They are also calling for a nationally consistent approach to the way soil data is collected, stored and accessed.

The recommendations are part of a bushfire expert brief, Soil Conditions After Bushfires, published today by the Australian Academy of Science.

Academy Fellow Professor Alexander McBratney, was one of the experts who contributed to the document.

“The bushfires severely damaged millions of hectares of land, not just above ground but the soil beneath us. This has clear implications for soil fertility, Australia’s agricultural productivity and the recovery of native vegetation,” said Professor McBratney, who is based at the University of Sydney.

“As a nation we can do more to monitor our soils. Post-bushfires there are opportunities to improve and implement initiatives to better manage Australian soils as we develop a soils recovery plan.

“A nationally consistent framework for soil data collection, storage and accessibility is important to provide the scientific evidence that underpins policy development,” Professor McBratney said.

The expert brief discusses the effects of bushfires on soil condition. It also highlights research that has found significantly lower nutrient levels, such as phosphate and nitrate, in the soil for up to 80 years following a fire event. Changes to nutrient levels can result in severe deterioration to soil condition with major ecological and functional implications.

At a bush summit last year, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison acknowledged that Australia’s soils are under strain and highlighted the benefits and importance of good soil management.

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Professor Rob Fitzpatrick from the University of Adelaide, also contributed to the expert brief.

“We need to accurately monitor our soils and ecosystems before fires, and start documenting fire intensity and severity and ensure soil assessment and management are integrated fully into bushfire recovery programs,” Professor Fitzpatrick said.

“The successful recovery of Australia’s soil condition also extends further than the immediate soil ecosystem,” he said.

“Interlinked systems such as biodiversity and conservation programs, agricultural and horticultural industries, and broader ecosystem services will also benefit from better monitoring and management of soil condition.

“We look forward to working with the National Advocate for Soil Health, Major General Michael Jeffery, state governments and other stakeholders, on initiatives to better manage Australian soils.”

The Soil Conditions After Bushfires brief is the first in a series that will be published by the Australian Academy of Science in the coming weeks. Future briefs will cover topics including wildlife monitoring, ecosystem services, human health, and remote sensing and data availability.

There’s no way to rush a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Nobel Laureate Professor Aaron Ciechanover. “In the end we shall develop [a vaccine]. There is no doubt about it, but the way, it’s very long and we have to test every step and make sure before we move to the next one, because lives of people are at stake.”

Professor Ciechanover made the comments in a recent Academy webinar, held in partnership with Technion Australia and the Embassy of Israel Canberra.

The webinar was held to celebrate Australia and Israel’s bilateral science, research and innovation relationship, which is underpinned by the Australia–Israel Agreement on Bilateral Cooperation in Technological Innovation and Research and Development that was announced in 2017 and came into force in 2018.

In conversation with Academy Chief Executive Anna-Maria Arabia, Professor Ciechanover discussed the future of medicine and cancer research, Israel’s unique entrepreneurial ecosystem, and his own personal journey to winning a Nobel Prize.

In 2004, Professor Ciechanover, together with Professor Avram Hershko and Professor Irwin Rose, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of the ubiquitin protein. The treatment of cancers and degenerative diseases was transformed by the discovery of how ubiquitin removes unwanted proteins.

“It started with a laboratory in Israel, in some vague idea. It now has become a huge stream of knowledge, pharmaceutical company scientists work on it all over the world. [Did] we know it? No, of course not at the beginning, you’re busy with your problem. We knew that what we are finding is novel, but we didn't know that it’s important.”

Asked what he thought posed the greatest danger to the future of medicine, he replied:

“Climate change. Forget about medicine, [climate change] hasn’t taken a sabbatical during the pandemic. And if we are not going to think about it seriously and globally, we are going to destroy this planet in no time. We don’t notice it because we say, ‘It’s not my business. My children will take care of it’, but it’s coming and it’s accelerating. We should take it extremely, extremely seriously in medicine.”

He also spoke about personalised medicine and how it will change disease treatment.

“Medicine of today, with all its advantages, what I call ‘one size fits all’. It's a pyjama way of treatment … something that we buy in order to warm ourselves up. When we buy, we don’t care much about the size. When the patient comes with a cancer, either we can operate on it, or we bombard the patient with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. That goes well beyond the tissue itself [with] side effects: balding, vomiting, the bone marrow suppression. You’re shooting a fly with a cannon … And what’s happened is that we’ve now started to identify the needle that we can use to punch this fly, and the needle is called our DNA.”

The webinar was opened by Ambassador Mark Sofer of the Embassy of Israel Canberra, and Ori Danieli of Technion Australia.

The Australian Academy of Science supports the below statement published recently by the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP). The IAP is composed of more than 140 learned academies around the world, including the Australian Academy of Science. In this communiqué, the IAP calls on the global community to ‘build back better’ during and after the pandemic, focusing on a green recovery.

Its key message is that only a low-carbon recovery will simultaneously provide for social equity, the environment, and human health.

The Academy has previously joined with other Commonwealth academies to call on governments for a sustainable recovery from COVID‑19.

Read the full statement below.

Science can ensure social equity, health, and economic benefits

July 7, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is imposing devastating health and social costs worldwide. At the same time, the climate emergency demands urgent and resolute action. This is why today, under the umbrella of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), 140 medical, scientific and engineering academies from around the world urge world leaders to focus on a green recovery when planning for economic activity after the pandemic. Their key message in their communiqué is that only a low-carbon recovery can generate co-benefits for social equity, the environment, and human health.

“It is clear that health and sustainability should be central to the post-pandemic economic response. Now it is time to make a choice. Either, societies return to the old pathways embedded in high-carbon economies that pose major threats to health and sustainable development. Or seek low-carbon socioeconomic pathways to protect and promote human health and enhance the prospects for an equitable recovery compatible with the commitments in the Paris Climate Agreement,” says Volker ter Meulen, IAP President. 

IAP academy members constitute more than 30,000 leading scientists, engineers and health professionals in over 100 countries. IAP’s analysis ‘Global Green Recovery After COVID-19: Using scientific advice to ensure social equity, planetary human health, and economic benefits’ draws on previous work by academies to identify challenges and science-based solutions across multiple sectors to effect fundamental recovery transitions worldwide that support the imperative for rapid decarbonization.

“We must rapidly reduce fossil fuel use and other sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and recognise the value of ecosystem services and of the potential for climate change mitigation policy to bring significant human health benefits,” says Cherry Murray, co-chair, IAP Science. “It has been said before, but it is worth repeating: We need to ‘build back better’,” adds Murray.

“International coordination is paramount, and we must focus our attention on the needs of the most vulnerable. Our recovery actions should take into account existing strategic initiatives, in particular the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and other UN Agreements on biodiversity and climate change. But these urgent priorities necessitate strengthening the capacity to support science-informed decision-making at national, regional and global levels,” says Masresha Fetene, co-chair, IAP Policy.

Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated health inequities, with a disproportionate impact on already vulnerable populations, IAP recently joined other health organisations in an open letter to the UN calling for measures to reduce health inequity not only as this pandemic continues, but also in developing plans for preparedness and responsiveness to future threats.

As a follow-up to this letter, IAP President Volker ter Meulen recently spoke alongside the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and others at the launch of the Global Sustainable Health Equity Movement, and IAP’s new analysis points out that also the green recovery must be rooted on fair and equitable strategies, leaving no one behind.

The new communiqué, available online at www.interacademies.org/greenrecovery, was signed by the Steering Committee members of the InterAcademy Partnership:

• Volker ter Meulen, IAP President
• Depei Liu, IAP President and Co-chair, IAP Health
• Margaret Hamburg, Co-chair, IAP Health
• Krishan Lal, Co-chair, IAP Science
• Cherry Murray, Co-chair, IAP Science
• Masresha Fetene, Co-chair, IAP Policy
• Richard Catlow, Co-chair, IAP Policy.

Four Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science are among the 2020 Australian Research Council (ARC) Australian Laureate Fellows, announced on 6 July by the Hon. Dan Tehan MP, Minister for Education.

The ARC Fellowship scheme provides funding for academics to lead research projects in priority areas of national interest. The scheme funds world-class endeavours in both basic and applied research and supports the appointment of early-career researchers.

The four Academy Fellows among the 14 recipients of the ARC funding scheme include Professor Martina Stenzel, Professor Toby Walsh, Professor David James and Professor Harvey Millar. Their research projects span diverse research areas of critical importance, including nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, the genetics of ageing and plant science.

The Fellowships have been awarded to the research leaders for the following projects:

• Professor Martina Stenzel FAA, Scientia Professor in polymer chemistry at the University of New South Wales and Chair of the National Committee for Chemistry, will develop a toolset that allows the design of very small nanoparticles that display enhanced biological activity for applications in nanomedicine, catalysis and sensors.
• Leading artificial intelligence (AI) researcher Professor Toby Walsh FAA of the University of New South Wales will work on building fairer, more efficient and trustworthy AI systems to improve the competitiveness of Australian businesses and the delivery of health services.
• At the University of Sydney, pioneering metabolic systems and cellular biology researcher Professor David James FAA will dissect how genes interact with the environment to better understand the ageing process and lay the foundation for personalised health strategies.
• Plant protein biochemist and newly elected Academy Fellow Professor Harvey Millar FAA of the University of Western Australia will study processes and genes that regulate degradation of proteins in wheat and barley plants to benefit Australia’s grain industries.

More information about the ARC’s Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme.

Australia’s investment in astronomy and our hosting of two of the world’s most powerful telescopes means we are well placed to contribute to more big international breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe, according to a new review.

The mid-term review of Australia’s 10-year plan for astronomy, overseen by the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Astronomy, has also found Australian physicists and astronomers played a key part in some of the decade’s biggest scientific discoveries.

The plan makes nine major recommendations for the next five years and details the ongoing investment into major facilities and infrastructure required for Australian astronomers to continue to play a world-leading role in answering key questions about our universe.

The 2020 identification of the ‘missing matter’ of the universe used data on fast radio bursts collected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia.

Australia is also home to the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), which alongside ASKAP is located at the site of the future low-frequency telescope of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an international project headquartered in the United Kingdom and involving 13 other countries.

“The SKA is ground-breaking technology and right now we’ve got the MWA and ASKAP in operation—these are two technical demonstrations for the SKA but in their own right are the most powerful telescopes of their type in the world,” said astrophysicist and mid-term review committee member Professor Tamara Davis from the University of Queensland.

“Australia is the envy of many international astronomers, partly because of our radio-quiet skies and important southern hemisphere location. We have a natural advantage in this regard and so many countries want to be involved in telescopes in Australia,” Professor Davis said.

The review recommends Australia pursue realisation of the full Square Kilometre Array Observatory, while continuing to exploit its ASKAP and MWA pathfinders.

It also calls on Australia to pursue full membership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a 16-nation intergovernmental research organisation for ground-based astronomy.

Currently, the Australian Government has a strategic partnership with ESO until 2027, but full membership would provide ongoing access to enormous international telescopes like the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the future Extremely Large Telescope in northern Chile.

“The Australian Government’s investment in a strategic partnership with the ESO has put the nation on the path to full ESO membership,” said the chair of the review committee, Professor Lister Staveley-Smith from the University of Western Australia.

“This partnership is unleashing major Australian-led science programs on the world’s most capable optical observatory and there’d be great benefit to see the agreement extend beyond 10 years,” said Professor Staveley-Smith.

The review makes seven other major recommendations including that Australia continue to build stronger ties between the Australian astronomy community, the wider Australian space science community, and the Australian Space Agency.

The review also highlights the contributions of the Australian astronomy community to mitigating the COVID-19 emergency. One astronomer, University of Queensland’s Dr Samuel Hinton, has been the lead data analyst for the COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium, with representatives from over 40 countries.

He constructed and maintained a data science pipeline which was responsible for ingesting raw clinical data from hospitals around the world, then cleaning, standardising and processing the data into useful products for machine learning and statistical analysis. He talks about his contribution to fighting COVID-19 in the Academy’s Latest from Science web show.

Read more about how astronomers have been able to contribute in a significant manner to mitigating the COVID-19 emergency on page four of the mid-term review.

The Academy and CSIRO have signed a new five-year partnership agreement, strengthening their long-term commitment to Australian science as part of the global research enterprise.

The two organisations have long cooperated to publish the CSIRO-owned journals of scientific research which are published by CSIRO Publishing, an editorially independent not-for-profit business unit of CSIRO.

“This latest agreement recognises the joint commitment of the Academy and CSIRO in advocating for and advancing open science, and the importance of diversity and inclusion in science,” said Academy Chief Executive, Anna-Maria Arabia.

“The ongoing partnership we have with CSIRO enables the Academy to contribute to CSIRO’s journals of scientific research, and to discussions about scientific and academic publishing.”

Editorial policy for the journals is developed by a Board of Standards, which is jointly chaired by CSIRO and the Academy.

“The current chairs are CSIRO’s Professor Lynne Cobiac and Academy Fellow Professor Max Coltheart, both of whom bring enormous experience and vision to the roles,” Ms Arabia said.

Academy Fellows and other scientists are encouraged to submit articles for publication in the CSIRO journals, supporting Australian science content and publishing.  

The scientific journals covered by the agreement are:

• Animal Production Science       
• Australian Journal of Botany
• Australian Journal of Chemistry
• Australian Journal of Zoology
• Australian Systematic Botany
• Crop and Pasture Science
• Environmental Chemistry
• Functional Plant Biology
• Invertebrate Systematics
• Marine and Freshwater Research
• Pacific Conservation Biology
• Reproduction, Fertility and Development
• Soil Research
• Wildlife Research

Find out more about CSIRO’s journals of scientific research. CSIRO Publishing supports both ‘Green’ and ‘Gold’ Open Access to help authors reach the broadest audience and to enable unrestricted access to scholarly research. All Open Access articles undergo the same rigorous peer review as those published under a subscription model.

For many Australians, the nation’s coasts and oceans are central to our self-image. These areas are some of our busiest locations and are among the fastest growing economic sectors. However, the fragmented way we currently manage and govern the ecological and social processes that connect ocean and coastal waterways puts them under threat.

Future Earth Australia’s Sustainable Oceans and Coasts initiative is set to develop a ten-year national strategy to ensure that these areas remain healthy and resilient. This strategy will outline the steps needed to transform how we think about, govern, and protect oceans and coasts across Australia, and serve as a blueprint for the national transformational change that Australia’s oceans and coasts need.

This week, Future Earth Australia is pleased to announce the formation of an Expert Working Group that will provide strategic direction and development of the strategy. This initiative, generously supported by the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, will represent a unique, cross-sectoral, transdisciplinary effort to improve Australia’s ocean and coastal future.

The Expert Working Group, co-chaired by Dr Beth Fulton of CSIRO and Emeritus Professor Nick Harvey of the University of Adelaide, comprises a group of leading experts across ocean and coastal research, practice and policy from around Australia. This group will oversee the development of the strategy, providing their deep working knowledge of Australian oceans and coasts and contributing to the writing of the strategy.

The strategy is poised to make waves globally as well as locally, as worldwide initiatives for the decade are focused on oceans and coasts. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development will run 2021–2030, with a strong focus on ocean health and sustainable development of the ocean. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which will also run 2021–2030, is set to look to the oceans and coastal waters in helping to combat climate change, ensure food security and conserve biodiversity.

“To achieve a sustainable future, by meeting the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and focusing on ocean science for sustainable development and ecosystem restoration, we need integration across sectors and expertise,” said Director of Future Earth Australia, Dr Tayanah O’Donnell.

The first meeting of the Expert Working Group will take place in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic. Professor Harvey noted that this crisis has demonstrated the importance of a coordinated and integrated approach across boundaries. “Our strategy should recognise that our oceans and coasts do not respect state or other jurisdictional boundaries. We need a coordinated and sustainable approach”.

The different sectors of the ‘blue economy’, the industries that operate in the ocean and along its coastal margin, are seen as an important part of future sustainable development. It is important however, that the sustainability ethic is not lost.

“If anything good can come from COVID-19, it is using the disruption as a pivot point to embed sustainability at the core of what we do going forward, to put us in a better place to deliver,” said Dr Fulton.

The Sustainable Oceans and Coasts strategy will be the second targeted strategy created by FEA, following the successful development of an urban sustainability plan that was launched in December 2019 at the State of Australian Cities Conference. This plan was developed through extensive consultation with key stakeholders across sectors and Australian cities and written by an expert reference group representing urban research, practice and policy and the FEA Secretariat.

The next steps of the Sustainable Oceans and Coasts initiative will include a series of virtual consultation workshops and interviews with key stakeholders, as well as opportunities for written submissions.

To stay updated on the Sustainable Oceans and Coasts initiative, you can visit FEA’s dedicated webpage for the strategy and follow FEA on Twitter.

Global industry giant 3M has demonstrated its commitment to supporting STEM in Australia during COVID-19 by continuing to provide funding support to the Australian Academy of Science in partnership despite planned events and activities being cancelled.

3M began collaborating with the Academy in 2019 by supporting the inaugural Science at the Shine Dome Schools Program.

The Schools Program provided an opportunity for 10 secondary students and their teachers involved in the New South Wales’ Science Extension course to attend the Academy’s Science at the Shine Dome 2019 event. This unique experience inspired the participants to become even more interested in science and research and highlighted why science matters now and into the future.

Funded by 3M, the program had intended to continue in 2020 with the partnership planned to expand into Victoria, to incorporate more diverse opportunities, wider participation and the provision of STEM education resources.

However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, Science at the Shine Dome 2020 was cancelled and the program could not occur. Despite this, 3M generously released the Academy from its partnership obligations.

Australian Academy of Science Chief Executive, Anna-Maria Arabia, said the support of industry during these unprecedented times is something to celebrate.

“3M has shown exceptional generosity and flexibility in allowing the Academy to retain the partnership support during the pandemic,” she said.

“On behalf of the entire Academy, thank you 3M for your unwavering support and intention to support the Academy in the future.”

3M Australia Managing Director, Chris LeBlanc, thanked the Academy for its tireless work and support.

“We are proud to be able to support the Academy with this flexibility in use of the grant and funding,” he said.

“I hope that this outcome will support your team while focusing on ramping up to better days on the other side of this COVID-19 pandemic.”

3M’s partnership support will contribute to the provision of independent, authoritative and trusted advice to the nation.

This includes work such as the recognition of exceptional scientists and research leaders; the formulation of scientific evidence to inform decisions; and the provision of education and communication resources.