Prof Peter Newman AO

Prof Peter Newman AO's Biography

Environmental scientist, author and educator Peter Newman AO is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. He has written 20 books and over 340 papers on sustainable cities. In 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport.

Peter has worked in local government as an elected councilor, in state government as an advisor to three Premiers and in the Australian Government on the Board of Infrastructure Australia and the Prime Minister’s Cities Reference Group.

He is a Co-ordinating Lead Author for the IPCC on Transport and his latest book is Resilient Cities: Overcoming Fossil Fuel Dependence. He is Editor-in-Chief of Sustainable Earth, a new Nature journal and in 2018 was made WA Scientist of the Year.

In 2001-3 Peter Newman directed the production of Western Australia's Sustainability Strategy in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet - the first state sustainability strategy in the world. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development said that there was no other strategy in the world as comprehensive and engaging of the community

As Sustainability Commissioner in Sydney from 2004-5, Peter Newman advised the government on planning and transport issues. In 2006-7 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville

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, as a society, we have created cities in which we have to drive everywhere. His book with Jeff Kenworthy, Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence was launched in the White House in 1999.

In 2001, Professor Newman co-authored a book titled Back on Track: Rethinking Australian and New Zealand Transport. In 2004 his book for the United Nations Environment Program titled Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems, was published.

In 2003, Peter was awarded a Centenary Medal for his contributions to Planning and Sustainability.

His books include Green Urbanism in Asia (2013), Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change (2009), Green Urbanism Down Under (2009) and Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence with Jeff Kenworthy which was launched in the White House in 1999.

Renowned for his futuristic thinking, Professor Peter Newman has consistently warned cities to prepare for peak oil since attending Stanford University during the first oil crisis 30 years ago.

Speaking Topics Include

Planning and Sustainability

Green Urbanism

Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence

Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil

Climate Change