UiO rector Svein Stølen held the opening address when Energy Forum 2019 kicked off at Oslo Science Park. On the program of day one was amongst others Professor Johannes Urpelainen from Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Kirsten Jenkins from the University of Edinburgh. They spoke about energy policies globally and energy justice regionally and locally respectively.
Other topics addressed that day was climate budgets as a management tool, what do we know about the social consequences of planning processes within the building sector, energy and transport, and whether there is a need to assess the Norwegian electricity system from a justice perspective.
On the second day, the focus shifted to lectures and debates on new materials needed to make the use of energy more efficient and sustainable, and to the issue of carbon capture and storage.
– UiO:Energy Forum is meant to be a cross-disciplinary meeting place for people whose work relate to creating a green transition, says Vebjørn Bakken, the Director of UiO:Energy.
– Last time we arranged the conference, the idea emerged amongst participants that we should try to establish research looking at prerequisites for a just and sustainable green shift from a social sciences point of view. And now we have it: in March we´ll see the formal kick-off of Include, a research centre for environmentally friendly energy (FME).
The conference also hosted a student pitching competition, with 10 students from different disciplines presenting their energy-related research on master or PhD.-level. The winner was Torjus Lunder Bredvold, a second year master´s student in the program Development, Environment and Cultural Change at the Centre for Development and the Environment, UiO. He is currently doing fieldwork for his thesis “Where no one is poor, and energy is abundant: A study of energy poverty in Norway”. Bredvold´s win ensured him two Inter Rail-tickets.
Presentations from the UiO:Energy Forum can be found on the program pages below: