PODCASTS NOW AVAILABLE
Dr. Eric Martinot
Podcast: Prof Bob Lloyd
Podcast: Caroline Ryder
Podcast: Eion Scott
This seminar will focus on some of the more difficult aspects of the transition to renewable energy; what’s likely to be needed and what’s likely to be possible. Through the different perspectives and viewpoints we hope to interrogate more thoroughly what’s needed and by when.
Dr. Eric Martinot is an internationally recognized scholar and teacher on renewable energy. He is lead author and research director emeritus of the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report, an annual synthesis of the state of renewable energy worldwide. He serves as senior research director with the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Japan, teaching fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, and senior visiting scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is also chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE). He was formerly a senior energy specialist with the World Bank and is author of 70 publications on sustainable energy. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Professor Bob Lloyd is from Australia, he came to New Zealand in 2002 after having worked for the Australian Coo-operative Research Centre for Renewable Energy (ACRE), based at Murdoch University in Perth. He has also worked on renewable energy systems in China and the Pacific Islands and taught at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. His current research interests at Otago University, where he is the Director of Energy Studies and Associate Professor in the Physics Department, lie in energy conservation in residential housing and energy management including world energy resources and peak oil. His PhD from Flinders University in South Australia was completed in the field of experimental atomic physics.
Caroline Ryder is a senior policy analyst at the Ministry of Economic Development. She currently works on renewable energy and RMA policy.
Eion Scott, Eco Design Advisor in the Building Policy unit of Auckland Council, has a background in communications and social marketing, is currently chairman of the Sustainable Living Education Trust and is actively involved with efforts to green the Christchurch rebuild. Eion specialised in energy efficiency while promoting Environment Canterbury’s Clean Heat Project, and is one of a dozen Eco Design Advisors trained by BRANZ to give free, practical, tailored advice to homeowners, architects and the building trade. He helped develop Auckland Council’s policy around solar hot water building consents and is involved in piloting the Council’s eco-loans programme, Retrofit Your Home, and the Green Building Council’s new Homestar© certified rating.
Thanks to Professor Alistair Woodward for providing us with this brief summary of the IPCC Expert Meeting on Human Settlements and Infrastructure – March 22-24, Kolkata
The 4th Assessment Report had no stand alone section on urban issues, despite the importance of cities as an economic force and the centre of population growth world-wide. It has been resolved that the 5th Report will focus more explicitly on settlements and the related issue of infrastructure, and also will attempt to bridge more satisfactorily the work of Working Group 2 (impacts and adaptation) and Working Group 3 (mitigation). It might be noted also that AR4 focused strongly on technology and efficiency as responses to climate change; here there is an opportunity to take a broader approach, and examine the systemic and structural influences on land use and energy consumption.
Themes and streams
1. A vision for the future of public health: for projects or work that suggest new ways of working in public health or successful models of intervention.
2. Sustainable communities and environments: for projects or work that suggest ways of sustaining strong communities and safe environments.
3. Diversity: for projects or activities that reflect health development issues for specific communities or groups of people.
More details available on the website
The world’s cities are responsible for up to 70 per cent of harmful greenhouse gases while occupying just 2 per cent of its land.
This report explores the threats and opportunities of our cities in relation to climate change.
Last night’s episode of ‘Hindsight’ on TV 7 explored the The Super City: A look at the never-ending expansion of Auckland over the years.
The aim of this report is to provide reflections on research which investigated the synergies between the Natural Sustainable Framework employed in Sweden’s Eco-municipalities with a tangata whenua view of natural sustainability in the urban environment. The research found that there are fundamental connections between the different world views. In the first instance, the overarching high level principles both agree that the ecosystem is governed by natural laws which we cannot change. People can learn about these laws and can change societal laws according to the laws of nature. Sustainable development is about discovering the rules and principles for society where it can have a sustainable relationship with the ecosystem to meet human need….
Taipei, Taiwan
April 11-13, 2011
Asian coastal cities are increasingly vulnerable to flooding disasters resulting from the combined effects of climate change (sea level rise, intensified storms, and storm surges), land subsidence, and rapid urban growth. As a part of the ongoing multi‐year effort titled “Cities at Risk” (CAR), which aims to reduce risks and vulnerabilities of Asian coastal cities brought on by climate change and urban growth, a series of international conferences were envisaged. The first such conference, CAR I, was held in Bangkok in February 2009 with support from APN, ICSU and Ibaraki University (Japan). Since then a number of priority activities have taken place, including formation of active city teams working on vulnerability assessment issues and establishment
of the IRDR International Center of Excellence at Academia Sinica in Taipei. Other cities throughout Asia are also establishing national centers for disaster risk management. Hence, a second international conference –
CAR II – is now being organized with support from Academia Sinica and other partners to assess progress, to consolidate a network of researchers, decision‐makers and institutions in the region and to identify priorities for the next several years.
Details here:
