2024 ACT Pearcey Round Table & Dinner

Tuesday, 24 September 2024

At the 2023 ACT Pearcey Round Table, the Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, challenged the Pearcey Foundation Members and Friends to research ideas that would immediately assist the progress towards Net Zero Emissions in the ACT. In July 2024,  a concept paper outlining the social and emission benefits that would result from the introduction of free public transport across the ACT was prepared and submitted to the ACT Chief Minister's Office.

This year's roundtable asks "are there infrastructure-level opportunities to reduce ACT emissions?"  

Referencing his recent research with the ACT's Adaptive Street Lighting Project, which reduced the brightness of streetlights by up to half - showing a 25 percent reduction in light pollution as well as savings in carbon emissions - Danny Bettay, will discuss how looking at a system more broadly and widening the boundaries of view can lead to novel approaches to reducing green house emissions.  Danny will talk of the issues and hurdles encountered in delivering the Adaptive Lighting Project, the myriad of actors and networks involved, and how they all played a role in shaping the ‘idea’, and how you communicate and include these actors to not only achieve your goal, but broader goals like achievment of Net Zero emissions.

Danny is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University (ANU) School of Cybernetics, has been significantly involved in the adaptive street lighting project in Canberra. His work focuses on reducing the environmental impact of streetlights through smart street lighting systems. The Australian-first trial is now the focus of Danny's PhD, and he hopes the results and learnings can be applied in other jurisdictions. The ACT was uniquely placed to embark on the project as its government owns the street-lighting infrastructure, which is not the case in other major cities in Australia.

Agenda

Registration

You can register to participate in the Round Table, stay on for the Pearcey Dinner, or join us for the dinner only.

Registrations close: 20 September, 4pm