Sebastian ThomasUniversity of Melbourne | MSD · Office for Environmental Programs
Sebastian Thomas
PhD
About
36
Publications
24,703
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1,022
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2016 - present
December 2012 - December 2015
International Energy Centre
Position
- Education Program Manager
Publications
Publications (36)
Mangrove forests play a crucial role in the carbon cycle and mitigate climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. However, mangrove ecosystems have declined dramatically in most regions due to natural and human factors, resulting in the release of substantial amounts of carbon dioxide. ‘Blue carbon’ conservation and restoration initiatives...
Government support for the ongoing use of fossil fuels has polarised public opinion in Australia regarding the country's transition to low carbon energy generation. Despite this, polls indicate a desire for more meaningful engagement in the global energy transition amongst the Australian populace, which has stimulated a growing interest in Communit...
Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger system that establishes transparent contract processes and facilitates secure but trusted business transactions. Policy‐makers around the world are intrigued by the potential of this emerging technology to solve policy problems, including the challenges of the transition away from centralised, linear model...
There are more than 1500 partnerships and initiatives currently addressing Sustainable Development Goal #14 (Life Below Water), with blue carbon activities – carbon-oriented conservation and restoration projects in coastal ecosystems – representing a small proportion. A key challenge for blue carbon initiatives is the integration of social and cult...
The restoration and protection of “blue carbon” ecosystems – mangroves, seagrasses, and tidal marshes – has potential to offset greenhouse gas emissions and improve coastal livelihoods. However, realisation of this potential relies on global investment in restoration and protection, which in turn relies on appropriate funding mechanisms that are cu...
Geoengineering could remake environments and societies, and early governance can help to steer the development of technologies towards sustainable outcomes. In the absence of observational data, geoengineering research and discussions are increasingly informed by scenarios, which provide heuristic tools for ‘envisioning’ potential futures. Although...
Energy transition is often described as the shift from deterritorialised models developed in tandem with the rise of capitalism towards a paradigm based on small-scale infrastructures and short supply chains. In this new paradigm the local dimension is pivotal. This paper takes a self-reflective stance on situated research conducted with local comm...
Community renewable energy can contribute to important social and environmental outcomes, and in less industrialised countries may be a means of achieving development priorities as well as climate mitigation goals. The complexity of such initiatives – involving regulatory, technological, financial, and governance issues – demands ways to integrate...
Geoengineering is a high-stakes policy issue that calls for research and debate that is pluralistic, reflexive and socially accountable. This paper reflects on an Australian geoengineering scenario project as a practical and innovative platform for informing governance. We produce multi-scale scenarios—representing Australia and the world— built on...
Geoengineering—the deliberate interference in the climate system to affect global warming—could have significant global environmental and social implications. How to shape formal geoengineering governance mechanisms is an issue of debate. This paper describes and analyses the geoengineering governance landscape that has developed in the absence of...
The subjectivity, complexity, and often competing interests of sustainable development have limited the effectiveness of integrating these important ideas into mainstream business strategy. With the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in January 2016, there are now global sustainability benchmarks that apply across diverse secto...
Oceans and coasts provide a wide array of services to humans, including climate regulation, food security, and livelihoods. Managing them well is vital to human well-being as well as the maintenance of marine biodiversity and ocean-dependent economies. Carbon sequestration and storage is increasingly recognized as a valuable service provided by coa...
Energy Storage Systems (ESS) provide a solution allowing higher levels of Renewable Energy (RE) integration into electricity systems, as the intermittency of RE power output can be addressed with storage solutions. This paper evaluates the value propositions of commercially available ESS for wind farms in Australia, focusing on power applications a...
This paper addresses synergies between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and considers how the CDM can facilitate the MDGs in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). To date, only 6 CDM projects have been registered in PICs, highlighting the ‘lose-lose’ business case that applies to this type of project dev...
Complex and variable ecological and social settings make the programme on reducing emissions through avoided deforestation, forest degradation and other forestry activities in developing countries (REDD+) a challenging policy to design. The total value to society of each type of REDD+ outcome is dependent on the fundamentally different risk profile...
Climate change and the emerging carbon-constrained economy of the 21st Century present new challenges and opportunities for countries of the Middle East and North Africa. This paper discusses the potential for Libya to participate in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the main flexibility mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, which is designed to re...
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a flexible market mechanism intended to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote sustainable development. China hosts a third of all registered CDM projects, and generates two-thirds of all certified emissions reductions. Understanding the political economy of the CDM in China is therefore of critical importa...
Peat forests are considered to be one of the largest reserves of terrestrial carbon, and play an important role in storing atmospheric carbon. Indonesia is home to nearly half of the world's tropical peatlands, and as the country with the world's second-highest deforestation rate (after Brazil), these peatlands are being severely degraded. Deforest...
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is the principal source of carbon offsets in the global market, and is intended to be a key driver of sustainable development and technical transformation in developing countries. The distribution of CDM projects by country has been skewed, with over 75% of registered projects having taken place in just four co...
In this introduction to the Annals of Tropical Research special issue on natural resource based carbon offsets a framework is provided for describing the architecture of global climate policy instruments and market mechanisms, and the relationships between these components of the international climate change mitigation and adaptation landscape is d...
This article examines reasons for the lack of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects registered in Pacific Island Countries (only two of the 1699 projects registered as of 1 July 2009 were located in such countries) and assesses the potential for new project development in the region. Two groupings of CDM projects are analyzed. First, features...
This paper presents an explanatory framework of how greenhouse gas emissions offsets produced from natural and planted forests
(‘carbon forestry’) feature in voluntary and regulated carbon markets. An introduction to the convoluted policy malaise surrounding
the use of forests in regulated carbon markets is also presented. Whilst there are many opp...
Climate change policies currently focus on reducing the concentration of industrial atmospheric greenhouse gases due to burning fossil fuels and deforestation, but pay limited attention to feedbacks between the land surface and the climate system. In tropical and subtropical regions, forests and woodlands play an important role in the climate syste...
Carbon offset projects in developing countries are one of the principal mechanisms designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable development yet have critical limitations in both areas. Here we present a framework for categorizing carbon offset projects according to four general approaches to the reduction of greenhouse gas em...
Of the more than 1600 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects that are currently registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), only four are afforestation or reforestation projects. This paper asks why there are so few CDM afforestation or reforestation (CDM A/R) projects given the many economic, social and...
This paper introduces a research project intended to evaluate the capacity of landowners in the Philippines to engage in small-scale carbon forestry projects and participate in international environmental markets, specifically through the clean development mechanism (CDM) or other similar schemes in regulated or voluntary markets. The paper discuss...
Projects
Projects (3)
The objective of my research is to understand and identify the synergies and conflicts between social forestry and REDD+ in Indonesia. Further, I want to explore the complex power network of forest governance in Indonesia and assess political implications for involved forest-dependent communities.
Purpose:
To design one or more behaviour change programs that can be tested, evaluated and then rolled out.
Scope:
To be decided during the problem identification process but likely at the local and/or state government level, possibly addressing waste.
Framework:
Practice theory alerts us to the fact that particular behaviours (practices) are the outcome of specific material, organisational, cultural and personal attributes and competencies. A change in any of these ‘aspects’ can result in behaviour change.
This project will be the first time that such a holistic approach is used to engage with practical behavioural change.
Process:
Having regard for the complexity of ‘wicked’ problems and the complexity of practices, the project will be:
Multi-stakeholder, including users, industry, government and academics.
Inclusive, all stakeholders will have the opportunity to participate in the project from the problem identification phase through to completion (and beyond through implementation).
Reflexive, the project will periodically revisit its aims and objectives, adjusting these to maximise the quality of the deliverables.
Design-led/interdisciplinarity, the practice(s) identified in the problem identification phase will need to be:
1. Mapped
2. Strategically evaluated
3. Baseline measured
4. Design intervention(s)
5. Evaluated/adjusted (possibly one or more cycles)
6. Turned into tools that practitioners can use and access (likely via a website)
Timeline:
Ongoing seeking interested stakeholders
Early December Problem Identification Seminar
January/February develop proposal for an ARC Linkage Grant
March lodge application
This project will determine how community-scale renewable energy initiatives can be developed in remote and regional contexts to support local needs and aspirations with appropriate technologies and complementary, sustainable livelihoods. Through collaborative activities involving multiple stakeholders, the project will establish a template process bringing community organisations together with industry, government, and research institutions to identify and implement local solutions within wider economic and regulatory frameworks. From an initial case study in Indonesia, the project will then connect with comparable Australian initiatives to build a bilateral coalition of community-oriented, research-driven solutions to contemporary challenges in energy and sustainable development.
