The Water Institute RBC Distinguished Lecture 2017 Quentin Grafton

The 2017 Water Institute RBC distinguished lecturer, Quentin Grafton, will present Innovation, Incentives and Infrastructure in the Blue Economy as part of  Elsevier's fourth International Water Research Conference, hosted by the Water Institute. 

We invite you to join us for this free, public lecture at the Crowne Plaza in Kitchener. Spaces are limited, please register on the official event page.  

For those unable to attend in person, the lecture will be recorded and available to view on our website. 

More information

The presentation reviews some of the obstacles to innovation, the causes of perverse incentives and reasons for inappropriate levels of infrastructure investment in the context of the Blue Economy. Attention is given to the often complex nature of decision-making in the Blue Economy, and the sometimes wicked problems of water governance. Possible responses to mitigate the challenges in the Blue Economy are highlighted in terms of both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ approaches and also the likely benefits.

Speaker bio

Quentin Grafton is a professor of economics, UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance and director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy (CWEEP) at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, an adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore, honorary professor at Lincoln University and president of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

Quentin previously served as chief economist and foundation executive director of the Australian Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (2011-2013). He currently serves as the director of the Food, Energy, Environment and Water (FE²W) Network which he helped found in 2014. He is the editor in chief of Policy Forum.net and executive editor of the Global Water Forum which he established in 2010. He has served in various advisory roles, including as chair of the International Geothermal Expert Group (2013-14) and chair of the Social and Economics Reference Panel of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (2008-2009).

Professor Quentin Grafton interview: The water-food-energy nexus and addressing wicked problems

In this interview Quentin discusses:

• The future of food and farming in light of growing 2008 / 2009 food crises that is linked to water scarcity problems
• Networks and resources that may be used to learn more about these issues and engage with these problems
• Participatory planning processes used to develop policy on how to address these future problems
• Examples from the Asia Pacific region where these issues are prevalent and how they are playing out