Welcome to the personal website of Ben L. Parr

Ben is a political scientist and government official with a special interest in climate change and defence issues.

In 2004, he commenced his undergraduate studies and was awarded a BA with honours in political science from Monash university in 2008. Between 2009 and 2014, he researched and wrote a PhD at the University of Melbourne, which was awarded in March 2015. His thesis examined Australian climate and energy policy and diplomacy during the Howard and Rudd years. During his PhD candidature, he worked on climate-related projects with David Karoly, Peter Christoff, and Robyn Eckersley (PhD supervisor), as well as on a variety of topics with Gareth Evans. Between 2015 and 2018, he worked as Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Sustainable Society Institute with Don Henry, and briefly at the Energy Transition Hub with Malte Meinshausen. This research examined the politics and policy of the 10 countries that the former US Vice President, the Hon Al Gore, believed key to achieving the Paris Agreement goals. In 2019, Ben published a book with Routledge based on his PhD research but covering a new period of analysis, the Gillard and Abbott years. Between 2020 and 2022, he worked at the University of Tasmania’s Policy Exchange (Hub) with Richard Eccleston on subnational climate and energy policy. In 2023, he investigated the impact of social licence issues on emerging low emission technologies. Between 2018 and 2023, Ben researched and wrote a book on relationship between climate change and the Responsibility to Protect (a conflict/atrocity prevention and response framework). It was published by Routledge in November 2023 (hardcopy January 2024). In 2024, he worked as Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland’s Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect with Alex Bellamy. This research examined the relationship between climate-conflict and climate-atrocity literature. Much of Ben’s professional experience in this period (2015-2024) was at the academic–policy interface, working with government, industry, and civil society from a university setting.  

In 2024, he transitioned into a related role with the Australian federal government.

Main creative contributions:

• Linking economic competitiveness and foreign policy to Australian climate policy and diplomacy (2014, available here)
• Linking climate policy to the Responsibility to Protect framework (2024, available here)

Contact:

benjaminlparr@gmail.com