Former Chief Scientist of Australia Dr Alan Finkel will deliver the keynote address “Speculations on the net-zero future of transport” at a transport conference to be held at The University of Western Australia next week.

Hosted by the Planning and Transport Research Centre (PATREC), the 44th Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF) Conference will run over three days from Wednesday, 29 November to Friday, 1 December 2023.

As special adviser to the Federal Government on low emissions technologies in 2021 and 2022, Dr Finkel brokered bilateral low emissions technology partnerships between Australia and each of seven key countries and chaired the Sydney Energy Forum.

In his latest book, Powering Up: Unleashing the Clean Energy Supply Chain, he shares his compelling insights and expertise and makes the case for Australia leading the way in the global transition to clean energy.

The conference program includes discussions on topics ranging from transport decarbonisation to travel safety, new technologies, autonomous vehicles, traffic modelling and Covid-induced travel changes.

Conference organiser and PATREC Director Professor Sharon Biermann said the conference would attract more than 200 delegates from industry, government and academia from around the country, New Zealand and internationally.

“While all transport research topics are on the table in continuing the ATRF’s tradition ‘to maintain open dialogue among researchers, policymakers, advisors and practitioners’, it is anticipated that our special conference theme will take it up a notch in stimulating lively debate and forward-looking thinking to move the transport research agenda towards a net zero future,” Professor Biermann said.

PATREC is a collaboration between the WA Government and UWA, Curtin and Edith Cowan universities, including Department of Transport, Main Roads Western Australia, Western Australian Planning Commission and the Western Australian Local Government Association.