Law Professor Jeff McGee, has been awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to lead a 4-year, $1.27 million project titled 'Securing Antarctic Governance in an Era of Climate and Geopolitical Change.'
The project will develop new approaches to address two crucial and interrelated challenges for Antarctic governance: the accelerating impacts of climate change and rising geopolitical tensions in the region. It responds to growing concerns about whether the Antarctic Treaty System can continue to govern effectively under these pressures.
Drawing lessons from past environmental issues and geopolitical disputes in Antarctica, the project will examine how innovative negotiation strategies and scenario planning can help manage these challenges. Expected outcomes include a detailed mapping of the interests of key Antarctic states and a suite of targeted negotiation strategies to strengthen the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Treaty System.
Professor Jeff McGee focusses on international law and governance issues relating to Antarctica, Oceans and Climate Change. As an international lawyer with expertise also in global governance and geopolitics, he divides his time between the School of Law and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. Jeff is also Director of the Australian Forum for Climate Intervention Governance (AFCIG), the leading national research group on the governance of climate intervention technologies.
His work is widely published in leading international journals in the fields of Antarctic governance and policy, international environmental law, global environmental governance and climate change policy. He has also published research books with leading publishers Edward Elgar, Springer/Nature and Routledge.
Jeff’s research and teaching uses theories from international law, global governance and geopolitics to analyse the future of the Antarctic Treaty System, oceans governance and international climate change governance. His work in leading the Australian Forum for Climate Intervention Governance analyses national and international governance of carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management. His research assists policymakers and the public in understanding a considering the policy options in each of these key issues for humanity of the coming decades. He provides critical analysis and commentary on the development and policy of institutions such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), and the legal frameworks that bind them.