Day two: Workshop Net Zero Australia: pathways to net zero emissions by 2050

The energy transition will not be straightforward. The current situation in the Australia energy markets is the perfect example of where global instability, supply chain pressures and the impacts of climate change collide with our ambitions for net zero emissions by 2050. The Net Zero Australia Project identifies pathways and requirements by which Australia could achieve net zero emissions while having the most competitive domestic energy system and clean exports by mid-century. Our work is scenario-based and intended to be transparent, technology-neutral, evidence-driven and non-political.

HOST: Simon Smart Associate Professor, The University of Queensland

Simon Smart is Deputy Director of the Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation and an Associate Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at The University of Queensland. His research is centred around the sustainable production and use of energy and chemicals – including the development of enabling technologies and mapping scenarios for the energy transition through the Net Zero Australia project. Simon has authored more than 100 journal publications at a h-index of 38.

Maria Lopez PhD candidate, University of Melbourne

Maria’s current research focuses on climate change mitigation in the agriculture sector, particularly in the meat industry. She is currently researching livestock systems and pathways to reduce emissions by developing a framework to support claims of carbon neutrality at a farm scale and its effect on the meat industry in future trajectories. She is experienced in modelling whole-farm carbon accounting in livestock systems across agroecological regions. In addition, she upgrades the farm greenhouse accounting framework (GAF) for different food production systems.

Jamie Lowe

CEO, National Native Title Council

Jamie Lowe, a proud Gundjitmara Djabwurrung man, first joined the National Native Title Council (NNTC) as Chair in 2017. Two year later, he was appointed CEO, charged with supporting First Nation’s people’s right to true self-determination in advocating for their right to speak for and manage their own Country; to govern their own communities; to participate fully in decision making and to self-determine their own social and economic development.

In 2021 he was appointed as the Indigenous Specialist Representative for the Australian Heritage Council – the principal adviser to the Australian Government on heritage matters.

In July 2018 he joined the Victorian Heritage Council as an Indigenous Specialist Representative and is a joint council member of the Coalition of the Peaks. Jamie was instrumental in the Closing The Gap Agreement with the Federal Government, that came into effect July 2020.

April Reside

Lecturer in Wildlife Science at the School of Agriculture & Food Sciences, University of Queensland.

April’s research encompasses ecology, conservation, and policy, with a focus on threatened species. She has worked with the National Threatened Species Recovery Hub, investigating refuges and refugia for threatened species from climate change; and the cost of recovering all of Australia’s threatened terrestrial and freshwater species. April also researches woodland bird communities.

April is Chair of the Black-throated Finch Recovery Team, and serves on two national committees for Birdlife Australia, and the Invasive Species Council’s Conservation and Science Committee.