Australia Alumni Events 2013

Oxford Faculty of Law’s Angus Johnston, Tutorial Fellow in Law at University College, gave talks in Melbourne (12 March) and Sydney (15 March) to alumni on “The EU's Emissions Trading System: Some Lessons and Prospects”.

He outlined some of the experience gained to date under the EU system (‘the EU ETS’), and highlighted some of the difficulties encountered and the techniques used to address them. He also explained some of the ongoing challenges, in particular with regard to oversupply of allowances under the EU ETS, its impact upon the carbon price and the consequences of this for emissions reductions, investment and technological development.Given that the current Australian scheme is in the process of being linked explicitly to the EU ETS, Angus Johnston also covered some of the likely implications of this proposal, and how various EU changes might have an impact upon the operation and development of the Australian scheme.

These events were organised by University College, and sincere thanks are due to: Herbert Smith Freehills (who hosted the Melbourne lecture), the Grattan Institute – especially John Daley (Univ 1995) and Angela Henderson – who made many of the arrangements in Melbourne; Sarah Strasser (Univ 1991) and Rawdon Dalrymple (Univ 1952) for their efforts in arranging the event and venue in Sydney, and Julie Monahan of Univ for co-ordinating the whole visit. A range of Oxford alumni attended both events and lively discussions ensued on the topic of the lecture, as well as concerning Oxford more generally.