A major new climate change research centre is to be established at the University of New South Wales, with a $6 million funding boost.

The University has thrown its weight behind a special strategic initiative proposed by the Faculty of Science, with the aim of becoming Australia's leading university in climate change research.

The new UNSW Centre for Climate Change Research will bring together some 60 academics across the university in an integrated research program addressing all aspects of climate change, from its causes to its impact on communities, public health, the law, the built environment and the economy.

As well, it will become the focal point for a diverse national network of researchers from universities and major Government research groups - including ANSTO, CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology and Australian Antarctic Division - known as the ARC Research Network for Earth System Science.

The centre will also team as joint directors two of the best and brightest Australia researchers in the field, Professor Matthew England and Professor Andy Pitman.

Professor England, of the UNSW School of Mathematics, holds a distinguished Federation Fellowship and is internationally known in climate change research, especially in understanding its effects and drivers in the neglected Southern Hemisphere.

"Climate change is emerging as one of the biggest threats facing humanity, with potentially devastating impacts on world food and water supply, human health, ecosystems, economies, infrastructure and global security," Professor England said.

"It is rapidly becoming one of the highest priority areas for research on all continents, and we aim to be Australia's best university in this vital field."

Professor Pitman, an expert in climate modelling was lead author of part of the recent global report card issued by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has announced his resignation from Macquarie University to join the new centre.

"The climate change initiative at UNSW is clearly at a scale that is simply outstanding," Professor Pitman said. "The opportunity to co-locate with genuine world-class scientists in climate, hydrology, vegetation science and many others is simply too good to refuse. Instead of competing as we did before, we can now develop a synergy that will allow us to lead climate science nationally."

Professor Pitman plans to focus initially on exploring the likelihood of abrupt climate change over Australia driven by terrestrial processes, and exploring the role of increasing carbon dioxide levels in causing plants to shut down transpiration, which leads to higher surface temperatures. He has an Australian Research Council grant to explore this issue over the Murray Darling Basin.

A priority for the new centre is to better understand the mystery of why Australia's most populated region, the continent's east coast, has suffered such major declines in rainfall in recent decades.

"We recently had a round-table of Australia's leading climate-change researchers and this emerged as the biggest unknown issue and, of course, it seriously affects the largest concentration of people stretching right down the coast from Cairns to Melbourne," Professor England said.

The Dean of the UNSW Faculty of Science, Professor Mike Archer, says the new centre's $6 million funding over five years is a major boost to climate change research nationally.

"We're going to take climate change research in universities to a new level with this important initiative, and we're backing it accordingly," Professor Archer said. "Few issues can be more important than this one.

"We also think it's a significant step because the centre will bridge many of the traditional boundaries between disciplines and bring the full force of UNSW's research strengths to bear on this immense challenge that faces us all."

Media contacts:
UNSW Media and Communications Office: Judy Brookman 0421 061251
Faculty of Science: Bob Beale 0411 705 435