Speakers from all over the world will deliver more than 100 papers at the second Asia Pacific Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Technology in June.
The conference, taking place on the Gold Coast from June 14 to 17, is being organised by the University of Queensland.
The event is expected to attract around 200 people, half of whom will be flying in from other countries including Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, New Zealand, India, Egypt, the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Germany and Hungary.
The conference will be officially opened by Minister for the Environment Senator Robert Hill after which Meg McDonald, Ambassador for the Environment, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, will deliver a keynote speech.
A further nine keynote speakers will address the gathering, four of them from the United States with the others coming from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China and Australia.
Greenhouse gas mitigation, air pollution, wastewater treatment, solid waste management, clean coal technology and renewable energy are among the major topics being covered during the three-day conference.
The University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Paul Greenfield, is chair of the organising committee which aims to build on the success of the first conference held two years ago in Singapore.
'In the latter part of the 20th century, the environment has emerged as a key factor in influencing technologies for the future,' he said.
'The extent to which environmental considerations currently affect individual, corporate and national decision making varies greatly, but the trend is clear.
'The overall objective is best summarised by the concept of sustainability - a concept which is easy to accept in general but is proving difficult to implement at the practical level.'
Professor Greenfield said in the energy sector, future technologies inevitably would be linked to issues of climate change resulting from increased greenhouse gas emissions.
'Emerging environmental technologies will offer opportunities to integrate cleaner production, waste minimisation and the end-of-pipe approaches for cost-effective and sustained environmental management.'
Professor Greenfield said the challenge for the Asia-Pacific region was to balance growth with sustainability at economic, social and environmental levels.
The conference is being organised in association with five other institutions in the region: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; the Korean Institute of Energy Research; the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Yokkaichi University, Japan.
For further information, contact Dr Max Lu (telephone 3365 3735) or the Web site: http://www.uq.edu.au/apc/
