L2A – celebrating 10 years!

L2A Infrastructure EIA 10, 17 and 24 March 2021

The award-winning learning to adapt professional development series is back in 2021, responding to the local, national and global challenges of climate change. Our first course will deliver targeted skills development on climate change in infrastructure environmental impact assessment. Our focus is on the NSW jurisdiction, exploring themes that apply just as well elsewhere.

Guided by a expert speakers from the research and policy communities and by case studies presented by practitioners, we will be considering how best to assess the risk of climate change related environmental, social and economic impacts on infrastructure projects, and the risk of impacts resulting from these projects, such as increased emissions of greenhouse gases. These climate change risks arise because of the acute and the chronic physical impacts of a warming planet on infrastructure projects and because of the risk of evolving human efforts to curb this warming have for these projects, what are now often called transition risks.

Who should attend?

This course had been designed for early and mid-career environmental practitioners in regulatory, policy, consulting and infrastructure development sectors looking to develop specialised skills in climate change and infrastructure EIA.

Places are limited. L2A Infrastructure EIA will run with a maximum of 20 participants to ensure quality of learning, and adequate scope for networking and engagement.

L2A Infrastructure EIA course details

Session 1 Considering climate risks in infrastructure EIA will position climate change in the NSW policy context, exploring the implications for EIA practice of current NSW planning law and policy relating to climate change. We will survey current policy tools, as well as some of the emerging proprietary products that assess transition, acute and chronic physical climate change risk in your infrastructure project.

Session 2 Risk assessment and adaptive pathways in infrastructure EIA will explore different approaches to climate change risk assessment, drawing attention to how these fit into current NSW EIA processes. We will consider how climate risk assessment in an EIA relates to community context, project scope, financing and ownership, leading us to consider how an adaptive pathways approach can be established in your EIA.

Session 3 Communications for resilience in infrastructure EIA will review how external and internal stakeholders engage with climate change risks associated with infrastructure projects of different scales, and in different locations. This informs how your whole EIA project team should be engaging in managing climate change risks.

For further information, see full program attached.

Expert Speakers

Session 1 - Considering climate risks in infrastructure EIA

10 March | 9.00am - 12.30pm

• Introduction to climate change risk
  • Dr Fabian Sack, Director, Sustainably
• The future of climate change in NSW EIA
  • Felicity Greenway, Executive Director, State Policy and Strategic Advice, NSW Department of Planning and Environment
• Climate-ready planning laws for NSW: Rocky Hill and beyond
  • Rachel Walmsley , Head of Policy & Law Reform, Environmental Defenders Office
• Adapt NSW and beyond: Sourcing and interpreting climate data for EIA
  • Dr Thomas Mortlock, Senior Risk Scientist, Risk Frontiers
• Cross-dependencies in assessing climate risks for infrastructure
  • Rohan Hamden, CEO at XDI: The Cross Dependency Initiative
• Integrating climate resilience and carbon neutrality into Sydney Metro
  • Jo Haggerty, Acting Associate Director Sustainability, Sydney Metro

Session 2 - Risk assessment and adaptive pathways in infrastructure EIA

17 March | 9.00am - 12.30pm

• Approaches to climate change risk assessment
  • Dr Fabian Sack, Director, Sustainably
• Integrated Regional Vulnerability Assessment
  • Associate Professor Brent Jacobs, Research Director, UTS-Institute for Sustainable Futures
• Corporate governance and climate disclosures in EIA
  • Ballanda Sack, Special Counsel, Beatty Legal
• How do we address the limits of traditional climate risk assessment? The case for adaptation pathways
  • Dr Mark Siebentritt, Director, Commercial and Expansion, Edge Environment
• Managing climate change risk in the Inland Rail Project
  • Georgia Gosse, Sustainability Manager, Australian Rail Track Corporation – Inland Rail

Session 3 - Communications for resilience in infrastructure EIA

24 March | 9.00am - 12.30pm

• Issues in communicating climate change
  • Dr Fabian Sack, Director, Sustainably
• Engaging NSW stakeholders on climate change in infrastructure EIA
  • Erica van den Honert, Executive Director, Infrastructure Assessments, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
• Embedding green infrastructure in urban land use planning
  • Steve Hartley, Executive Director, Green and Resilient Places, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
• Consulting the community on renewable energy projects
  • Andrew Brownlow, General Manager, Central NSW, Premise
• Climate change risk assessment for environmental impact assessment at Transport
  for NSW
  • Dr Veronika Emetc, Sustainability Manager, Environment and Sustainability
    branch, Transport for NSW

Course delivery

• Online via zoom over 3 x half days
• Start 9.00am – finish 12.30pm

Series Education Partner

Student Member Supporter

Sponsorship

There are L2A sponsorship opportunities for: series partner, course partner and student member support. The Prospectus for L2A 2021 is available below or contact Fiona Gainsford, EIANZ NSW, Fiona@gainsford.com.au to discuss possible partnerships.