This Environment and Governance research theme examines important environmental justice questions through the lens of ethics, philosophy and norms, considering their intersection with governance and development processes.  

Regulating the Environmental Impacts of Chinese Investment Overseas

In this ongoing project, Pichamon Yeophantong seeks to understand how overseas investment activities conducted by Chinese corporate actors can be better regulated for environmental sustainability. To this end, in addition to scholarly and policy publications, other related activities will include the organisation of policy roundtables and dialogues on the topic, along with training workshops for policy practitioners. She has published in Water International (River activism, policy entrepreneurship and transboundary water disputes in Asia) and Human Rights Defender

Ecological Impacts of Walls and Fences in the Age of the Anthropocene

Umut Ozguc’s project seeks to reinterpret borders as connected ecologies. The project critiques the overly anthropocentric focus of the contemporary debates over borders and mobility that has prevented scholars from seeing the borders in ‘more-than-human’ terms. Instead of focusing on how to make the border ‘more humane’, the project problematises the Westphalian state system. 

Food Security in Asia 

In this project, Monika Barthwal-Datta critically examines the environmental challenges, among others, facing food and agricultural systems in select countries across Asia, the policies being implemented to address them, and the implications of the latter on the food security of those who are embedded within these systems. This work began with her MacArthur Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship on ‘Food Security in Asia: Strategic risks and mitigation’ at the Centre for International Security Studies, University of Sydney, and is ongoing. She has published an Adelphi Paper in Food Security in Asia, and articles in the SAGE Handbook of Globalization and Gender Matters in International Politics

Researchers’ Social Impacts on Mental Health and the Sustainable Development Goals 

In this ongoing project, Dr Cobi Calyx is leading a team of early career researchers funded through Future Earth Australia. The project aims to explore researchers’ social impacts related to mental health and the Sustainable Development Goals.  

UNREDD+ and International Laws

Under this ongoing project, Dr Calyx documents and teaches links between the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UNREDD+), and international environmental and human rights laws. PhD candidate Jessicah Mullins is helping to update this infographic of REDD+ and related international laws, developed by Dr Calyx, with 2020 data.