"Global warming and peak oil represent two of the most significant challenges in the history of humanity. While the ongoing expansion in the scale of human activity accounts for both of these phenomena, and there is now rapidly growing public awareness of the urgency of these issues, the identification of an agreed ‘way forward’ is still to be resolved."

[In Australia] "Federal and State Governments are currently assessing policy responses for global warming, and some individual councils are breaking new ground in both the policy and practical areas, but the local government sector as a whole has not identified how it can effectively contribute to a state or national framework, as part of a ‘whole of government’ or ‘whole of community’ response to try and save the planet. In the past, challenges of this magnitude have only ever been faced in times of war."

This conference took place in Melbourne, Australia in June 2007. The conference webpage now hosts archived presentations from the conference. Some highlights:

• Roger Bezdek, President, Management Information Services Inc.
  Strategies required to cope with peak oil
• Donald Coventry, Association of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO) Australia
  Implications of peak oil for local government
• Peter Newman, Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, at Murdoch University WA
  Climate Change, Oil and Cities: What does it mean for Melbourne?
• Greg Hunt, Western Port Greenhouse Alliance (WGA)
  The regional perspective on climate change
• Adam Davis, Manager - Environmental Health & Protection
  Local government in a carbon constrained future