COP26 – UTS experts available for comment

RENEWABLE ENERGY, CLEAN ENERGY JOBS, COAL TRANSITION, ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Associate Professor Dr Sven Teske, Research Director, Engineer, Institute for Sustainable Futures
[NB: Dr Teske will be at COP26 November 1-6]
Expert topics: Energy decarbonisation pathways for specific industry sectors and regions; 100% renewable energy concepts required to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement for countries, regions, cities; microgrids for islands and the development of National Determined Contribution (NDC) reports.
Quotes: “The outcomes of COP26 will be crucial in determining what action will be taken, particularly in Australia, towards meeting the 2050 and 2030 targets. My colleagues and I have recently expanded on our ‘pathways to Net Zero’ work to identify the remaining global carbon budget for 12 main industries. Our research shows that it is still possible to limit global warming to 1.5C and implement the Paris Climate Agreement, but this requires timely climate action by key stakeholders: policy makers, industry sectors and financiers alike.”
Contact details: sven.teske@uts.edu.au (UK time)

Dr Chris Briggs, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures
Expert topics: Clean energy jobs, transition for coal regions, large scale renewable energy/corporate power purchase agreements. Dr Briggs is part of the Business Renewables Centre which facilitates renewable energy deals with solar and wind farms.
Contact details: 0477 301 892; Chris.Briggs@uts.edu.au

Dr Scott Dwyer, Research Principal at Institute for Sustainable Futures
Expert topics: Clean energy for residential customers; distributed energy resources (solar PV, electric vehicles, battery storage, fuel cell, hydrogen); customer energy innovation (new business models, products, and services); community microgrids; electric vehicles; local government
Quotes: “The COP will help send a signal to energy consumers that the policy makers are committed, and that they are taking the steps necessary to help make it easier for them to decarbonise their daily lives.
Contact details: 0451 596 030; Scott.Dwyer@uts.edu.au

Dr Nic Surawski, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering
Expert topics: Decarbonisation of transport emissions
Quotes: “This COP meeting is shaping up as the last chance to introduce policies that give humanity a chance of delivering on the objectives of the Paris Agreement.”
Contact details: 0490 123 548; Nicholas.Surawski@uts.edu.au

David Roche, Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures; RACE for Business Program Leader, RACE for 2030 Cooperative Research Centre (RACE = Reliable, Affordable, Clean Energy)
Expert topics: Business net zero strategy, 100% renewable energy
Quotes: “COP26 is likely to be an important step in moving towards national and global policy frameworks that limit climate change. However, many in the Australian business community have already moved ahead of our political leaders – setting ambitious net zero targets, and finding ways to decarbonise their operations, particularly through switching to 100% renewable energy. In the energy sector, change is occurring rapidly, as it must. The role of governments must be to support and accelerate a just transition to clean energy through targeted policy and market reforms.”
Contact details: 0413 007 268; David.Roche@uts.edu.au

James Goodman is Professor in Social and Political Sciences and leads the UTS Climate Justice Research Centre. 
Expert topics: global politics, socio-cultural change and climate justice.
Contact details:  James.Goodman@uts.edu.au

CORAL REEFS, MARINE ECOSYSTEMS, BIOECONOMY

Martina Doblin, CEO Sydney Institute of Marine Science
Expert topics: Biological impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems
Quotes: “Given the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions, COP26 must deliver concerted, coordinated and targeted efforts to alter the trajectory of global temperatures, otherwise the natural assets that underpin Australia’s blue economy (projected to be worth $100 billion per year in 2025) and more than 340,000 jobs will be under threat.
“Among many other goods and services derived from the ocean, climate change threatens the capacity of marine ecosystems to capture and retain carbon, meaning that we threaten the natural processes that help restore carbon balance if we do not act. We already knew this at COP21 and we have not done enough since then to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 deg C.”
Contact details: 0439 339 230; Martina.Doblin@uts.edu.au

Dr Emma Camp, Deputy Team Leader Future Reefs Team, DECRA ARC Research Fellow
Expert topics: Coral reefs, gender equality in STEM, nature-based solutions 
Quotes: “Coral reefs are the 'canary in the coal mine' for the impact climate change is having on the Earth's natural systems. Coral reefs, like many natural systems, face irreversible damage without serious action on reducing the global reliance on fossil fuels. The outcomes of COP26 could ultimately determine the fate of natural systems such as coral reefs.”
Contact details: 0431 132 315; Emma.Camp@uts.edu.au

Professor Peter Ralph, Executive Director UTS Climate Change Cluster
Expert topics: Bioeconomy, circular economy, algal biotech, nature-based carbon sequestration, bioplastics, alternative protein, carbon capture and utilisation, climate change mitigation
Quotes: “To achieve net zero we need to replace fossil-derived carbon with captured carbon. This is a massive opportunity to transform global industries. Algae can capture carbon and provide sustainable raw materials to support industry and society.
Contact details: 0412 323 358; peter.ralph@uts.edu.au

Kate Barclay, Professor of International Studies and Global Societies
Expert topics: Sustainable fisheries, the social and economic contributions fisheries and aquaculture make to coastal communities, fisheries governance.
Contact details:  Kate.Barclay@uts.edu.au

Associate Professor Michael Fabinyi
Expert topics:  Coastal livelihoods, agrarian change, food security in coastal contexts, seafood trade and fisheries governance. 
Contact details: Michael.Fabinyi@uts.edu.au

BUILT ENVIRONMENT, BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY, GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

Leena Thomas, Professor of Architecture
Expert topics: building energy efficiency, climate justice in the built environment, zero carbon developments, thermal comfort and high-quality living and work environments
Quotes: “The energy, waste and carbon intense nature of the built environment are significant contributors to climate change.  Buildings and construction account for approximately 40% of energy related CO2 emissions.
“Additionally, some of the worst effects of intense heat stress and extreme weather events, are already being played out in our cities and built environments.
“We urgently need to address adaptation and mitigation in a manner that promotes sustainable practices, equity, as well as health and wellbeing within the built environment. I’m interested in transformational design approaches that bridge technical and human dimensions in response to these challenges.”
Contact details: 0408 405 478; Leena.Thomas@uts.edu.au

Sara Wilkinson, Professor of Sustainable Property
Expert topics: Sustainable retrofit and adaptive reuse of buildings, green infrastructure in cities – green roofs and walls
Quotes: “The built environment contributes around 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, and around 90% of the buildings we will have in 2050 are already here. We need to sustainably retrofit and reuse existing stock. We have the technology and the know-how – we need the will to act.
“I work with marine biologists, bioengineers, health care professionals, mechatronics engineers and horticultural scientists – solutions involve transdisciplinary innovation and engagement.”
Contact details: 0432 357 213; Sara.Wilkinson@uts.edu.au

FASHION, DESIGN

Dr Timo Rissanen, Associate Professor, Fashion and Textiles
Expert topics: Fashion and sustainability, fashion and climate change. Dr Rissanen is a co-founder of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion, which has made a brief statement on COP26
Quotes: “This is the time for the fashion industry to reckon with its scale, and the direct impacts that fashion overproduction has on climate change. In addition, fashion must cease to be a pipeline for the fossil fuel industry in the materials and dyes it uses.”
Contact details: 0478 649 037; Timo.Rissanen@uts.edu.au

Professor Cameron Tonkinwise, Research Director, Design Innovation Research Centre
Expert topics: Human-scale redesign of everyday practices as ways of transitioning societies, redesigning households and household practices for the transition to a distributed energy system, community responses to a more extreme climate
Quotes: “The human species is beginning to experience global temperatures that we have never experienced before. Hopefully, the COPs will agree on ways of transitioning our societies away from higher levels of climate change, but those radical changes are going to have to be made at the same time as we redesign our societies to deal with the levels of climate change that are now unavoidable.”
Contact details: 0438 499 451; Cameron.Tonkinwise@uts.edu.au

FINANCE

Dr Christina Nikitopoulos, Senior Lecturer, Finance Discipline Group
Expert topics: Climate change and sovereign bond markets, renewable energy generation
Contact details: 0406 423 794; Christina.Nikitopoulos@uts.edu.au