The Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions connects people with climate, energy & disaster-risk research from The Australian National University. Our goal is to advance innovative solutions to address climate change, energy system transitions and disasters. We facilitate integrated approaches to research, teaching and policy engagement across disciplines.

ICEDS represents more than 600 climate, energy and disaster-risk related researchers across ANU, including academics, visiting fellows / honorary roles and PhD students. Our team comprises over 15 professional staff members, including three additional research roles supported by funding external to ANU.

Within ICEDS, the Climate Resilient Food Systems team aims to catalyse research and development collaboration between research, industry and government agencies interested in creating pathways towards more resilient agri-food systems. The team is involved in research, development, implementation, capacity building, teaching, and knowledge sharing which support activities in the Asia-Pacific. It works with government, university, and private partners in Australia and across the region.

Project: Catalysing Sustainable Food Production in PNG Through Carbon Incentives

Summary:

In the context of global efforts to address climate change, carbon markets are emerging as an opportunity for farmers in the global south. In the coffee sector, one of two main ways that farmers can engage in carbon markets is by selling carbon-neutral coffee. Carbon certification and trading represents a new opportunity for coffee production in Papua New Guinea and could play a significant role in promoting sustainable and environmentally friendly coffee cultivation practices. It could also provide a range of economic and non-economic benefits to coffee farmers and assist to strengthen PNG’s coffee industry.

This project’s key outputs will include the identification of climate change vulnerability to PNG coffee production with specific attention on Chimbu Province; the identification of climate change resilient coffee farming activities suited to the PNG smallholder context that may also maximise existing carbon trading or certification options; a cost-benefit assessment of smallholder engagement in different carbon market pathways; a summary of PNG coffee agroforestry systems and innovation within these systems; and case study selection criteria and the development of community engagement material.

The intern will support the project by undertaking a systematic review of costs associated with certification and will validate this with coffee exporters like MONPI and organisations like Fairtrade via informal interviews. These estimates will be examined in the context of carbon neutral certification to determine if this type or certification will be more or less costly.  The intern will present their results at a multi-agency meeting.

Interns will learn to:

• Design a research scope and effective methodology to derive cost data from a range of broad dataset
• Design survey instruments for informal interviews
• Communicate findings to broad audiences