Speakers and events

Seminar - Overseas perspectives on challenges to sustainability

A line-up of international experts on environmental sustainability came to New Zealand to share their experiences and add to the dialogue about becoming a sustainable nation:

• when: Wednesday March 7 at 6:30pm
• where: Whare Wananga, Auckland Central Public Library, Lorne Street
• format: Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Morgan Williams, hosted a series of short presentations, followed by a panel discussion. Questions from the floor also featured.

This seminar related to the PCE20 Forum. PCE stands for New Zealand's Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. This year it is celebrating 20 years of work towards environmental sustainability. For more information visit http://www.pce.govt.nz/.

The speakers

Professor Peter Newman
Professor of City Policy and Director, Institute of Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, Perth

Peter has just returned from the US as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville,

examining innovations in sustainability in US cities, regions and states. This is based on comparative work he did in Western Australia at the political level when he worked with the Premier of WA from 2001 to 2004 to develop the State Sustainability Strategy; this was the first state in the world with such a strategy, covering 42 areas of government. He is well known in Perth for his work in rebuilding Perth's rail system which is now seen as a model for modern cities. Peter's academic work includes his book with Jeff Kenworthy 'Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence' which was launched in the White House in 1999 and his 2001 co-authored book is called ‘Back on Track: Rethinking Australian and New Zealand Transport.' In 2007 Peter is the author of the chapter on Greening Urban Transportation in World Watch Institute's ‘State of the World, 2007'.

Dr Ian McPhail
Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability in Victoria, Australia

A New Zealander who began his professional life as a school teacher, Ian became Victorian commissioner in 2003 after having been deputy director-general of the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency. He has been appointed a member in the Order of Australia for service to conservation and the environment. "Sustainability simply means the ability to be mainteaned or sustained. Environmental sustainability is saying that we are able to sustain the environmenta as part of the economic and social development - forever," he says.

Gord Miller
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Canada

Gord has served as the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario since 2000 and oversees the implementation of the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR). He monitors and reports annually on government complance with the EBR. Gord has extensive experience with environmethal issues including water and waste management issues, noise, air pollution and land use planning.

Professor Tim O'Riordan
Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

A member of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, an independent body championing sustainability on all levels of government, Tim has always been interested in environmental management, holistic approaches to science, and applied research. His interests include the relationship between global agreements and local action for sustainable development; the emergence of a more independent local authority role in shaping sustainable futures for communities; and how democracies can take into account very long-term decision making on issues such as climate change, endangered coasts, and wildlife management.

Bart Wesselink
Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

Bart has broad knowledge of environmental issues and policies in the Netherlands and Europe. He is manager of the European Sustainability programme and has led Dutch state-of-the-environment reporting and supervised a mid-term review of the European Environment Agenda. He has looked at the effectiveness of environmental policy instruments for industry, and the impacts of new EU policies on the Netherlands.

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