Tony Weir
Honorary Associate Professor
BSc (Hons), ANU, PhD Cambridge
email tony.weir@anu.edu.au

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About

Tony Weir has worked on energy and environment issues in the Pacific Islands and Australia for over 30 years.  He is co-author (with John Twidell) of a widely used university textbook, Renewable Energy Resources (1986, 2006, 2015) and was a Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy (2011).  He has been a reviewer for all three working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):  on climate science, climate impacts and adaptation and socio-economics, and is on the Editorial Board of the journal Regional Environmental Change.  He  retired in 2013 from the University of the South Pacific (USP), where he developed and taught new postgraduate courses on climate change.  He was the Acting Director of USP’s Environment Centre for much of 2009, during which time he secured over A$10m of funding for USP’s work on climate change.  He has also managed a large international program of renewable energy projects and been a policy adviser to the Australian Government, specialising in the interfaces between technology and policy and between energy and climate change.

Affiliations

Research interests

Projects on the interaction of two or more of the areas list below:

Areas of expertise

  • Climate change (science, adaptation, social impacts, economics, policy)
  • Renewable energy (technologies, policy issues)
  • Pacific Islands (environments , policies ,  societies, and development)
  • Innovation and the knowledge-based economy

 

Publications

  • Weir, T & Kumar, M 2020, 'Renewable energy can enhance resilience of small islands', Natural Hazards. DOI 10.1007/s11069-020-04266-4.
  • Weir, T & Kumar, M 2020, 'Increased Renewable Energy in the Pacific Islands Can Enhance Resilience', CLIMATE2020 - The Worldwide Online Climate Conference, Haw Hamburg, Online.
  • Weir, T 2020, 'Adaptation in Small Islands: Research Themes and Gaps', in W Filho Leal (ed.), Managing Climate Change Adaptation in the Pacific Region, Springer, Cham, pp. 45-68pp.
  • Pilbeam, V, Van Kerkhoff, L & Weir, T 2019, 'Conservation Decision-Making in Palau: An Example of the Parallel Working of Scientific and Traditional Ecological Knowledge', Environmental Management (New York), vol. 64, no. 5, pp. 564-579pp.
  • T Weir 2018, 'Renewable energy in the Pacific Islands: Its role and status', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, pp. 762-771pp.
  • T Weir and J Pittock (eds),  Human Dimensions of Environmental Change in Small Island Developing States, special issue of Regional Environmental Change, vol 17, issue 4 (Springer, 2017). 
  • T Weir and J Pittock (2017), “Human dimensions of environmental change in small island developing states: some common themes”, Regional Environmental Change, 17, 949-958.   doi: 10.1007/s10113-017-1135.
  • T Weir, E Dovey and D Orcherton  (2017), “Social and cultural issues raised by climate change in Pacific Island countries: an overview”, Regional Environmental Change, 17, 1017-1028, DOI: 10.1007/s10113-016-1012-5
  • J.W. Twidell & A.D. Weir (2015),  Renewable Energy Resources, third edition,  Routledge, London and New York.
  • R Kumar, M Stephens and T Weir (2014), “Rainfall trends in Fiji”,  International Journal of Climatology, vol 34, pp 1501-1510.
  • R Kumar, M Stephens and T Weir (2013), “Temperature trends in Fiji: a clear signal of climate change ”, South Pacific Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences, vol 31, pp 27-38..
  • T Weir and D Orcherton (2013) , “Climate change issues in the Pacific Islands: an overview”, pages 51-64 in  W Leal Filho, F Mannke, R Mohee, V Schulte, D Suroop (eds) , Climate-Smart Technologies: integrating renewable energy and energy efficiency in mitigation and adaptation responses, Springer, Berlin.
  • T Weir and S Prasad (2013), “Adoption of climate-smart technologies: the case of rural solar electricity in the Pacific Islands”, pages 379-392 in  W Leal Filho, F Mannke, R Mohee, V Schulte, D Suroop (eds) , Climate-Smart Technologies: integrating renewable energy and energy efficiency in mitigation and adaptation responses, Springer, Berlin. 
  • T Weir (2012)., “Climate change and renewable energy: implications for the Pacific Islands of a global perspective”, Journal of Pacific Studies, vol 32 (2), pp 4-30.
  • W Moomaw, F. Yamba, M. Kamimoto, L. Maurice, J. Nyboer, K. Urama, and T. Weir (2011): “Renewable Energy and climate change” pp161-207 In IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation [O. Edenhofer, R. Pichs‐Madruga, Y. Sokona, K. Seyboth, P.Matschoss, S. Kadner, T. Zwickel, P. Eickemeier, G. Hansen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
  • T Weir & Z Virani (2011), “Three linked risks for development in the Pacific Islands: climate change, disasters and conflict”, Climate and Development, vol 3, pp193-208.
  • A Verbruggen, M Fischedick, W Moomaw, T Weir, A Nadai, L J Nilsson, J Nyboer and  J Sathaye, (2010) “Renewable Energy Costs, Potentials, Barriers: Conceptual Issues”, Energy Policy, 38, 850-861.
  • L Limalevu, B Aalbersberg, P Dumaru and T Weir (2010), “Community Adaptation in a Small Island Developing Country”, Tiempo #77,  16-19.
  • Australia as a modern economy – some statistical indicators 2002, Dept of Industry Tourism and Resources, Canberra, June 2002 [principal author]
  • Towards knowledge-based economies  in APEC, a report to APEC leaders, [lead author, with S Gera and C Moon], APEC Economic Committee, c. 200 pp, November  2000.
  • C Maguire, E J Kazlauskas and A D Weir, Information services for innovative organisations, Academic Press, 316pp (1994)
  • A D  Weir (1998) "Global climate change mitigation: issues of uncertainty, equity and timeframes", in J P Terry (ed), Climate and Environmental change in the Pacific, University of the South Pacific, Suva.
  • K.J. Taylor & A.D. Weir (1985)  “Simulation of a solar timber drier”, Solar Energy, 34, 249-255.
  • A.D. Weir, D.Wood & P.Bradshaw (1981),  “Interaction of turbulent shear layers”, J. Fluid Mech. 107,237-260 (1981).
  • C.Chandrsuda, R.B.Mehta, A.D.Weir & P.Bradshaw,  “Effect of freestream turbulence on large structure in turbulent mixing layers”, J. Fluid Mech. 85, 693-704 (1978).