Net Zero Cities with Sustainability: Are we winning, especially over oil?

Description/Abstract: The world’s cities are racing for time as climate change sets in and in recent weeks as oil security is threatening again in the Middle East. After ten years of policy change and investment since the Paris Agreement, are we winning in this race? Peter Newman’s new book ’Net Zero Cities with Sustainability: A Practitioner’s Approach’, suggests we are, and he will go through the global data and some case studies that offer hope, despite attempts by Trump to intervene. The dramatic changes in response to the oil crisis will be highlighted. Peter has worked with governments and with three IPCC reports and he believes that urban planners can play a big role in accelerating the transition. He will outline how innovation waves use ‘creative destruction’ as the major economic driving force but need creative planning approaches to show how they fit in each urban fabric and economy, as cities have always done.

About the speaker

Prof. Peter Newman is a Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, Sustainability Policy Institute. He has written 25 books and over 420 papers on sustainable cities with a global reputation. His 2025 book is Net Zero Cities with Sustainability: A Practitioners Approach from Edward Elgar which won a Planning Institute of Australia award for Climate Change and Resilience. He has worked to deliver his ideas in the three levels of government in Australia, as a councillor in the City of Fremantle, seconded to work with three Premiers in WA and the NSW Sustainability Commissioner, and at Federal level on the Board of Infrastructure Australia. Peter worked for the UN’s IPCC from 2010-25 where he was the Co-ordinating Lead Author on Transport in the 2022 Mitigation Report and a Lead Author in the Cities chapter. In 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport particularly for his work in saving and rebuilding Perth’s rail system. In 2018 he was the WA Scientist of the Year.