Speakers Profile - Prof Peter Newman










Travels From:
Perth

Fee Range: E


Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University. He has just been appointed to the Board of Infrastructure Australia.

Peter directed the production of Western Australia's Sustainability Strategy in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet from 2001 to 2003. It was the first state sustainability strategy in the world.

In 2004- 2005 he was a Sustainability Commissioner in Sydney advising the government on planning issues. Then in 2006 - 2007 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville where he completed two new books 'Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change' and 'Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems'. In Perth, Peter is best known for his work in saving, reviving and extending the city's rail system.

Peter invented the term 'automobile dependence' to describe how we have created cities where we have to drive everywhere. For 30 years since he attended Stanford University during the first oil crisis he has been warning cities about preparing for peak oil. Peter's book with Jeff Kenworthy 'Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence' was launched in the White House in 1999.