The ANU-UTS climate-energy-water links project

The ANU-UTS Climate-Energy-Water Links (CEWL) project is led by CWEEP Research Associate, Dr Barry Newell, and is a response to the growing recognition that a better understanding of the links between climate, energy and water is essential in any attempt to formulate energy and water policies for more resilient and adaptable societies. The project has developed out of efforts by members of the ANU Water Initiative (Karen Hussey, Barry Newell, Stephen Dovers) that have led to (a) an agreement between the ANU and COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research), to mount a series of integrative workshops, and (b) a proposal to establish an Australian CEWL program. The need to establish an Australian program was the focus of a workshop, entitled Towards an Australian Climate-Energy-Water Links Program, held in March 2008 at the ANU. The workshop attracted some 30 participants.
 The aims of the workshop were: 

1. To develop a first view of the complexity of the Climate-Energy-Water system.
2. To discuss the R&D needed to support the design of integrated policy.
3. To provide participants with an opportunity to meet potential collaborators.

The CEWL workshop applied elements of a systems approach developed by Barry Newell and Katrina Proust of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society (Newell, Proust, Wiltshire, and Newell 2008). The workshop involved the use of influence maps to capture participants’ views of the links between climate, energy, and water. The process generated a significant amount of useful data, and post-workshop feedback from participants has been good. The ANU-UTS CEWL project has grown out of that workshop. It is a collaborative effort funded jointly by the ANU and the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). The project is focused on the development of a conceptual framework to support integrative policy-making in the climate-energy-water domain.

The CEWL Project comprises a number of complementary case studies that adopt a system dynamics approach (Sterman 2000) to capturing the dominant feedback structures that drive the internal dynamics of the climate-energy-water system in SE Australia.