'People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction' was the warning from 16 year old climate activist Greta Thunberg this week. How to address and describe climate change are questions of existential and urgent concern. Annually, ANU Learning Communities has been engaging in these discussions through the Great Green Debate. This year we ask: 'Should Australia Declare a Climate Emergency?'

Tackling this question we will be joined by:

• Professor Sophie Lewis - ACT Scientist of the Year (2019), with a research focus on investigating the causes of recent extreme climate events in Australia and understanding future extreme climate events
• Dr John Hewson AM - former leader of the Federal opposition, economist for the Australian Treasury, the Reserve Bank, the International Monetary Fund and advisor to two successive Federal Treasurers and the Prime Minister
• Dr Imran Ahmad - Founding Director of Future Earth Australia, WWF-Australia Governor, former Director of East-Asia and Pacific at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
• Minister Shane Rattenbury - ACT Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability
• Chairing the debate are thrilled to have former journalist, Asia-Pacific policy expert and Communications and Engagement Manager of the Crawford School of Public Policy, Martyn Pearce.

Following the debate, we will be joined by various student groups over drinks, who will share the diverse and interdisciplinary ways they are engaging with Climate Change.