Tonight I attended a useful seminar on the future of transport in Australia organised by the Melbourne Energy Institute and the Grattan Institute. Chaired by Professor Roy Neel, Chief of Staff to former US Vice President Al Gore and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University, speakers included:

• Ms Fiona Calvert, Director Strategy and Resource Efficiency Policy, Policy and Communications Division at the Department of Transport, Victoria;
• Prof Nicholas Low,Professor of Environmental Planning, Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, and Associate Director and Founder of GAMUT  – The Australasian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport;
• Mr Patrick Hearps, Research Fellow, Melbourne Energy Institute, University of Melbourne;
• Mr William McDougall, Principal, Public Transport, Practice Leader, Sinclair Knight Merz.

There was a live webcast, but I’m not sure if the footage is being uploaded somewhere. I hope so.

UPDATE: The webcast has been uploaded here.

One point I’d missed was a fascinating Guardian article by John Vidal on information from Wikileaks that cables from the US embassy in Riyadh “urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom’s crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.” If true, and few seem to believe that official Saudi reserve statements are accurate, the economic implications are serious.

MEI’s next seminar is on November 16 on ‘The Future of Solar Power’ – should be interesting.

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