Day one : Session

People, society, and institutions: just transition

Rohan Best

Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University

Equitable energy policies for households

Rohan Best is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics in the Macquarie Business School. His research focuses on policy formulation to address inequality, especially inequality of household energy outcomes. These energy outcomes include solar panel uptake and energy insecurity. Rohan worked in the financial services industry prior to completing a PhD from the Australian National University.

Rebecca Pearse Lecturer, Australian National University

Beck Pearse is a sociologist who joined ANU’s School of Sociology and the Fenner School of Environment & Society in 2020. Her teaching and research focuses on inequalities and environmental policy. Beck’s current projects investigate land and labour relations in the industrial transition to a ‘net zero’ economy. She is a Chief Investigator on the ARC project, Environmental Justice and the Making of Just Food and Energy Policy (Schlosberg, Pearse, Rickards 2020-22).

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Declan Kuch Research Fellow, Western Sydney University

Everyday sustainability in Western Sydney

Declan is a sociologist of knowledge and emerging technologies. His research spans the social dimensions of the climate and energy transition, automation and the life sciences. He co-convened the IEA’s UsersTCP Social License to Automate task and is currently engaged in research on everyday sustainability practices in Western Sydney. Declan has published his research in leading social science journals and consulted to the Australian Council of Learned Academies on the social dimensions of science and technology.

Yeliz Simsek Research Fellow, Australian National University

Structural change towards net zero transition

Yeliz Simsek is a Research Fellow at the Australian National University (Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions) in the area of modelling of decarbonisation trajectories and system interactions with an extensive experience in macroeconomic, energy and environmental modelling, across a number of international institutions including Spain, Turkey, Chile, UK and Australia.

David Roche Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

David Roche is a Research Director (Strategic Energy Collaborations) at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. His expertise includes distributed energy systems, flexible demand, and net zero strategy. He has over 25 years’ experience in business development and technology commercialisation, which includes project-managing some of Australia’s first grid-connected photovoltaic systems, developing Australian renewable energy standards and policy, and being a director of five ASX-listed technology start-ups.

He leads business development for ISF’s Energy Futures team, and provides business development expertise to the newly-established NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub.