Blogs

Cyber security is no longer the responsibility of the IT professional – it must be engineered into a project from the start. There’s a growing belief that every engineer should have some cyber security expertise. When she was taking advice on Cyber Security curriculum development from experienced Australian Defence Department staff who were part of her advisory committee, Professor Jill Slay AM was handed a challenge. Defence felt cyber security should become an engineering discipline. All of the standards around cyber security had previously been defined through an applied computing or information systems lens. But Defence saw the challenge as a greater ...

Having just sat through 5 hours of discussions by all the Heads of Delegations on what the COP27 outcomes ought be, and how these outcomes should be politically signalled to the rest of the world (via what's called Cover Decisions); I can honestly say that I'm no closer to guessing what a "Sharm el-Sheikh declaration" (or whatever formal personality they attribute to it) might look like. While drafting this update (at 7pm, 17 November 2022) I'm still waiting to observe the first phase of concluding plenaries (commencing at 8p and going through to 10p) which will continue into tomorrow. Meanwhile Damian Ogden (EA GM, Policy and Advocacy) is representing EA ...

It's quite difficult to get a sense of where this COP will end up in just a few days’ time; and how achievements will be characterised within a context of this being the “implementation COP” and despite the very important issues on the table. It is a very different COP to all of the previous ones I’ve attended. The shades of grey might well be due to the fact that many of the big ticket items are procedural with mandates to continue technical discussions (TD) well into 2023. But some agendas that will host future TD’s next year such as the Global Stocktake will clearly need to move rapidly into an implementation mode if it is to feature as a COP28 milestone. ...

The first week of COP27 is almost at an end. Co-facilitators of the discussions across the many negotiating items are concluding their informal considerations of agenda items by forwarding their recommendations to the closing plenaries of the Subsidiary Bodies (SBs). These SB plenaries are scheduled for tonight (Saturday, 12 November 2022) and will take place post the drafting of this blog. The SB recommendations will then be forwarded to the Presidency for consideration by the decision making bodies of the CMP, CMA, and COP next week; and the hard to settle issues will attract the attention of the highest diplomacy. Some key issues that I’ll report more ...

Today's COP27 update will be quite a short one as negotiators continue to practise the art of diplomacy and delve deeply into the minutia of complex elements of agenda issues. As an example, negotiations can often spend hours debating (aka filibuster) whether a suggested recommended course of action is to be described as 'could' or 'should'. And after 20 or so countries have had their say on any particular issue, there's never much time left in what are called 'informal' sessions for the co-chairs to reorientate discussions back out of the 'trees for the forest' again. In sparing readers of the details of negotiations, please note that I will summarise the ...

This morning started early with a BINGO (business and industry NGO constituency) meeting, where delegates shared their understanding and experiences to date on the various negotiating issues and events. This is a key benefit of being at the COP as there are so many issues being explored and discussed simultaneously that it’s not possible to be across everything at the same time. We also heard from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Secretary General, John Denton (an Aussie) on the importance of the private sector especially at COP27. Week 1 Wednesday at the COP is generally consumed by negotiators frantically drafting text on all 173 issues listed ...

It's been a somewhat bewildering start to COP27 even for someone like me whose been to 14 of them; but this COP definitely has a very different feel, look and purpose to many other previous COPs I’ve been to. It certainly doesn't have the sparkle of COP26 in terms of number of important and ambitious announcements or the expressed optimism of "keeping 1.5 degrees alive”, but it is promoted by many world leaders as being equally important as an "implementation" COP, and it may still yet break records in terms of number of registrations and the volume of meetings and interactions taking place within the blue zone (UN secure precinct) and the green zone (outside ...

The 27 th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) along with the 17 th session of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) and the 4 th session of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) will all convene in Egypt under the auspices of COP27 from 6 to 18 November 2022. COP27 is set to explore over 173 formal agenda items; many of which are under the guidance of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI). At the end of the first week of the ...

Introduction The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) underpins the global effort to address climate change. It provides the principal multilateral platform in which over 200 sovereign nations convene to negotiate and further commit to undertaking differentiated levels of actions to address climate change. The 27 th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the UNFCCC is being hosted by the Egyptian Government in Sharm el-Sheikh and is scheduled to take place from 6 to 18 November 2022. COP27 will see the Egyptian Government officially serve as the COP President to chair and inspire climate actions at COP27 and for the ...

We are thrilled to welcome to our EAXchange community the Climate Smart Engineering Initiative (CSEI) Information Hub . This information hub aims to be an effective repository platform for important climate-related documents and information; including, for example, sharing EA’s reporting on the upcoming international climate negotiations of COP27 (scheduled for 6-18 November 2022). The hub will provide EA members with open access to all uploaded information; it will house documents relating to EA’s CSEI workplan as well as approved climate-relevant collateral sourced from colleges and divisions (e.g., plans and strategies). Please note that the communication ...

It’s time for Australia to know how engineering is making life happen A new program from Engineers Australia aims to showcase the important work engineers play within society to the broader public. From addressing global challenges like climate change to making life better for local communities through innovations in key areas like transport, health care, and water infrastructure, engineers play a vital role in society. But despite being a profession that has a tangible impact on the lives of Australians, many people can’t describe what engineers do — it’s not all hard ...