Sir John Beddington’s prediction of a perfect storm, a decade ago, set the
theme for this year’s Crawford Fund Conference. Fittingly, the Sir John Crawford
Memorial address was presented by Professor Ross Garnaut AC, a former
student, and colleague of Sir John Crawford, who spoke of Australia’s global
role as the engine room of the low-carbon world economy. He highlighted the
challenge of adapting to weakly mitigated climate change. In order to reduce the
weight of our global footprint we need coordinated and context-specific policy
development and science innovation. His address was the underpinning of the
conference, with the speakers all united in the message that without significant
change a global climate disaster will be upon us.