Reports

Read the Renewable and Rural Australia report (pdf, 12MB)

The report, Renewables & Rural Australia: A study of community experiences in Renewable Energy Zones in NSW and the case for more equity and coordination of the clean energy transformation, is published by The Australia Institute and the Sydney Environment Institute. It presents the findings of a major study of the social impact of large-scale renewable energy in rural communities.

The technological shift away from coal to renewable energy for electricity generation is also a spatial shift. We are moving electricity generators to new dedicated Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) in parts of rural Australia that have not hosted energy utilities at this scale before. This report presents an analysis of this transition based on field trips, interviews, policy and industry analysis in some of the communities that will host Australia’s new electricity infrastructure.

While Renewable Energy Zones are a huge opportunity both for regional communities and for decarbonisation in Australia, if national REZ policy is to succeed it must be socially and environmentally sustainable and this must include bringing meaningful and equitable long-term development to local communities at the key sites of new electricity infrastructure.

Authors:

Dan Cass, The Australia Institute
Professor Emeritus Linda Connor, University of Sydney
Riikka Heikkinen, University of Technology Sydney
Dr Rebecca Pearse, Australian National University

Read the Towards a Just Transition from Coal in Australia? report (pdf, 11.6MB)

This report presents the key findings from a research project which sought to understand how ‘just transition’ is currently understood in Australia, the challenges Australia will have to overcome to achieve a just transition away from coal and the opportunities for reframing just transition ideas in ways which stimulate productive discussions between different stakeholders and communities. The project drew on a review of the academic and grey literature, a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, and analysis of 355 media articles.

The report summarises the findings of the British Academy-funded project A just transition away from coal in Australia, funded under the British Academy’s ‘Just Transitions to Decarbonisation in the Asia-Pacific region’ programme. It builds on Dr. Gareth Edwards’ Leverhulme International Fellowship investigating the case for ‘Just coal?’, as part of which he is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Sydney Environment Institute.

The full list of reports published within the British Academy Scheme is available here.

Authors:

Dr Gareth Edwards, University of East Anglia
Dr Clare Hanmer, University of East Anglia
Professor Susan Park, University of Sydney
Dr Robert MacNeil, University of Sydney
Milena Bojovic, Macquarie University
Jan Kucic-Riker, University of Sydney
Dan Musil, Western Sydney University
Gemma Viney, University of Sydney

Read the Reimagining a Climate Changed Future report (pdf, 6MB)

The climate emergency poses a crisis of imagination that limits the possibilities for action. However, alternative imaginaries are emerging amongst some communities as they create the possibility of more relational, sustainable and ethical forms of life in a climate-changed world.

This SEI report, Reimagining a Climate Changed Future: Local Examples of Community-Based Transformative Action, forms part of the larger research project, Grounded Imaginaries, which brings together the Sydney Environment Institute (SEI), India and Bharat Together (IABT) and the Social Entrepreneurship Association (SEA) to explore how communities in Australia and India are reimagining their futures through their practices.

This report is an initial exploration into the inspiring transformative work already underway in Australian communities that are responding to threats posed by climate change. These communities are addressing the changes that extreme weather events, food and energy insecurity, and threats to agricultural practices are bringing to their lives, by building community resilience and connectivity.

This is only the beginning for the Grounded Imaginaries project, and we’d like your help to build a network of inspiring community stories. If you’d like to be involved in this network or have any feedback about the report, please let us know by contacting the Project Manager, Genevieve Wright (genevieve.wright@sydney.edu.au). Or alternatively, sign up to our mailing list to receive updates about the project. We look forward to reimagining a brighter future together.

Authors:

Kelvin Gensollen Arellano, Master of Development Studies, University of Sydney
Manon O’Neill, Master of Public Policy, University of Sydney
Chi Tran, Master of Development Studies, University of Sydney

With guidance from Professor Danielle Celermajer (Project Lead) and Genevieve Wright (Project Manager).

Read the Unsettling Resources: Renewable Energy in the Pacific report (pdf, 12MB)

Climate change is the greatest threat to Pacific Island Countries (PIC), which face increasingly severe weather events. The region is also powered predominantly by imported fossil fuels and suffers from low electrification rates in many areas, making the transition to renewable energy a policy priority to reduce emissions and promote energy security and resilience.

This SEI report Unsettling Resources: Renewable Energy in the Pacific, summarises the key findings from the 2-day Unsettling Resources Symposium that brought together researchers, industry, government and community into a forum for exchanging ideas about trends in renewable energy and the reality of energy injustice in the Pacific.

This report is part of the Unsettling Resources research project that investigates the dependence of our energy use and systems on conventional energy and the global shift to renewables.

Authors:

Dr Kate Owens, University of Sydney Law School, University of Sydney
Professor Susan Park, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney
Gemma Viney, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney

Read the Closing Ranger, Protecting Kakadu report (pdf, 6.5MB)

In January 2021, following four decades of imposed uranium mining and milling, operations at the Ranger uranium mine will end. This will leave a heavily impacted site that requires extensive rehabilitation. It must be of a very high standard to realise ERA and Rio Tinto’s obligation to rehabilitate the site to a standard suitable for incorporation into Kakadu National Park and to meet the clear expectations of multiple stakeholders. Australia has a long history of sub-standard mine closure and rehabilitation in both the uranium and wider mining sector. Two former Rio Tinto uranium operations at Rum Jungle (NT) and Mary Kathleen (Qld) remain highly problematic. A far better approach and outcome is needed at Ranger.

This review of the 2020 Ranger Mine Closure Plan (RMCP) identifies some key issues and barriers to achieving the environmental requirements and objectives at Ranger. In raising these issues it seeks to improve the prospects for achieving a rehabilitated Ranger site that can be incorporated into Kakadu National Park.

Authors:

Mia Pepper, Mineral Policy Institute
Rebecca Lawrence, Sydney Environment Institute
Dave Sweeney,  Australian Conservation Foundation
Associate Professor Gavin Mudd, RMIT
Kirsty Howey, Environment Centre NT
Justin Tutty, ENCT

We acknowledge the Mirarr people as the Traditional Owners of the land where the Ranger mine is sited and thank them for their sustained efforts to protect Country and culture.

Read the Insights into Community Urban Resilience Experience report (pdf, 4.1MB)

This report presents the findings of Resilient Sydney – Insights into Community Urban Resilience Experiences, a research project that examined community resilience to shock events in Greater Metropolitan Sydney. This study used the System Effects methodology, as well as focus groups, to identify the impacts, barriers and enablers experienced by residents and emergency and non-emergency service providers in relation to 2013 Blue Mountains bushfires, the 2016 East Coast Low in the Northern Beaches, the 2016/17 heatwave in Penrith, and the 2014 Martin Place Siege.

A collaboration between Resilient Sydney and the Sydney Environment Institute.

Authors:

David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute
Luke Craven, Department of Government and International Relations
Hannah Della Bosca, School of Geosciences
Beck Dawson, Resilient Sydney
Kristin Gabriel, Resilient Sydney

Read the Unfinished Business: Rehabilitating the Ranger Uranium Mine report (pdf, 4.8MB)

Four decades of imposed uranium mining and milling by Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) and Rio Tinto is about to end at the Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu, leaving a heavily impacted site that requires extensive rehabilitation. Long contested by the area’s Traditional Aboriginal Owners, the Mirarr people, the mine site is completely surrounded by the dual World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park.

This report is an independent assessment of the rehabilitation and mine closure process to date. It explores some of the concerns and constraints surrounding the rehabilitation and makes recommendations that seek to address these in order to improve the chances of the successful closure and rehabilitation of the Ranger Project Area.

The background research to this report was funded by FORMAS, the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development.

Authors: 

Rebecca Lawrence, Sydney Environment Institute
Dave Sweeney, Australian Conservation Foundation.

Read the Fighting to be Herd report (pdf, 19.9MB)

This report concerns the impacts of Boliden’s proposed open-cut copper mine on the Swedish side of Sápmi23 in Laver, Älvsbyn, in Northern Sweden, for the Semisjaur Njarg Sami reindeer herding community. The proposed mine is on the Semisjaur Njarg community’s winter grazing pastures. Winter grazing pastures constitute a “bottleneck” for reindeer herding in general, and the Semisjaur Njarg Sami community is already under significant pressure from other land encroachments and industrial developments on their traditional lands. The Semisjaur Njarg Sami community want to continue to enjoy their right to pursue traditional reindeer herding in the area. They also want to sustainably manage their traditional land in the area for future generations. The Semisjaur Njarg Sami community believe that the proposed Boliden mine would make this impossible; they therefore oppose the proposed mining activities in the Laver area.

Authors:

Rebecca Lawrence, Sydney Environment Institute  
Rasmus Kløcker Larsen, Stockholm Environment Institute
In collaboration with the Semisjaur Njarg Sami community