Events

Lecture: Can Fossil Fuel Addicts Become Climate Change Leaders?

Who: Cameron O’Reilly, Center for International Energy and Environment Policy

When: April 29, 2009, 4:00 pm, Reception will follow.

Where: JGB 2.218

Abstract:
In May of this year with the support of the Obama Administration, debate is likely to resume in the US House of Representatives on legislation to introduce a “cap and trade” emissions trading scheme in the United States. In Australia, one of the world’s most fossil fuel dependent countries and the largest exporter of coal, its national government has committed itself to a cap and trade system.

Cameron O’Reilly, an Australian Fulbright Professional Scholar based at the Center for International Energy and Environment Policy, and head of a major energy association, will present on what the cap and trade system means for that country and how that may be relevant to the US. What are some of the adjustment costs and how quickly can the energy industry in Australia and the US adjust to the need to lower emissions under a cap and trade system?

Bio:
Cameron O’Reilly has received the 2008 Fulbright Professional Australia-U.S. Alliance Studies Scholarship sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Through his Fulbright Scholarship at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas, Cameron will work on a project Reducing emissions while remaining competitive from March – June 2009.

Cameron holds a Masters of Management and Public Policy from Monash University and a Bachelor of Economics from The University of Sydney. He has been a commentator on the development of Australia's energy markets since the mid 1990's and has had a number of opinion pieces published on the need for market based approaches to climate change.

For more information, please contact Jessica Smith at jsmith@jsg.utexas.edu.