ISCAST Perth is excited to welcome Peter Newman, John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, who will give a talk titled “Get the Temperature Down! Hope, the Theology of Cities and Net Zero: Can We Reverse Climate Change?”

The climate crisis is testing human futures as we leave the “safe operating space” and go beyond the 1.5°C of warming that climate science suggests is beyond the experience of cities and agriculture. The net-zero transition is now well underway, suggesting the reversal of climate change may well be feasible. But the threat of denial through populist politics suggests that we face deeper challenges if we are to find hope. The Prophets and the book of Revelation can help us understand the deeper values we need to choose if we are not just to get to net zero but also to reverse climate change.

Details

• When: Thursday 5 November 2026, 7 p.m. AWST
• Where: Forrest Hall, University of Western Australia, 21 Hackett Drive
  • On the corner of Mounts Bay Road and Hackett Drive, on the river side. Go ten metres inside the entrance; the room is on your left.
  • Free parking is available in UWA after 5 p.m. and along Hackett Drive.
• Tea and coffee are available.
• This event is free and open to all. No registration required.

For enquiries, please contact Peter Thomas.

Speaker

Peter Newman AO is John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University. He has worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a lead author for fifteen years and is the author of twenty-five books and more than four hundred papers on sustainable cities and decarbonisation policy. In 2014 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport, and in 2018–19 he was Western Australian Scientist of the Year. He has been a member of St Paul’s Beaconsfield for more than fifty years.