Young, Mike

Michael Young is a visiting fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. He is also the research chair in water and environmental policy at the University of Adelaide, was the Founding Executive Director of its Environment Institute, is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and is a distinguished fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. He played a key role in establishing Australia’s National Land and Water Resources Audit. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security, in 2010-11 he led the water component of a UNEP study on opportunities to pursue green growth strategies throughout the world. He serves as a member of the Global Water Partnership’s Technical Committee. He was a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. In 2006, he was awarded Australia’s premier water research prize — the Land and Water Australia Eureka Award for Water Research. The award recognizes the significant contribution of his research to the development of improved water entitlement, allocation and trading systems in Australia. He is an honorary professor with the University College London and, in 2012 spent several months in the United Kingdom working on water policy options for the Department of Environment, Food and Regional Affairs. This included consideration of ways to significantly reform water abstraction licensing and pricing arrangements. In 2013, he spent several months with the OECD’s Environment Directorate working on a draft framework for the design of water abstraction regimes and options for the management of water scarcity challenges in the Netherlands. He is continuing to work directly with water users in Nevada’s Diamond Valley.