Prof Brett Cohen is a Chemical Engineer with a PhD from the University of Cape Town. He has worked on climate and sustainability-related projects across the globe, in both academia and the private sector. Brett has been appointed as a Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth assessment report (AR6), was an expert for scoping of AR7, and has been appointed to the UNFCCC Roster of Experts on climate change matters related to UNFCCC activities, having completed several of the UNFCCC training courses. He is a C2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher, has published extensively in academic journals and presented at a number of international conferences. Brett is a co-founder of Enuity consulting, and also holds a position as an Honorary Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCT.

Brett’s consulting services include scenario and futures planning, sustainability performance/ESG assessment and reporting, climate risks and opportunities, greenhouse gas emissions modelling, energy systems analysis, technology assessment, industrial ecology, decision support, workshop facilitation and strategy development. His work draws on experience from chemical process engineering, multi criteria decision analysis techniques, network theories, natural systems and economics to develop robust and defensible system models. Sectoral experience includes banking and finance; mining and minerals processing; chemicals; electricity generation; hazardous and municipal waste management; transport; and water and wastewater treatment.

Brett has over 12 years experience in the energy and electricity sector. Projects conducted in this sector include having developed software for supporting multi stakeholder decisions around electricity supply for Eskom, having developed agent based models to explore the coal mine-power station relationships and the impacts on cost of coal and environmental performance, and most recently having been the project lead on the development of the South African Coal Roadmap. He has also been involved in a study on future scenarios for Australia’s Latrobe Valley coal producing region. Brett’s current position as part of the Energy Systems Analysis group at the Energy Research Centre at UCT provides him with continuing academic involvement in the sector.

Brett also has wide exposure to the mining and minerals processing sectors in both South Africa and Australia. Brett’s minerals related project experience has included work on decision support for strategic tactical and operational level decisions done for the Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing in Australia; a study on future scenarios for Australia’s Latrobe Valley coal producing region; and work on minerals futures scenarios for the Institute for Sustainable Futures to name a few. Brett’s research work has also found application in the sector, having done laboratory research on various minerals processing related projects. His PhD was also applicable to the sector, having focused on management of hazardous waste from the ferrochrome industry.

Brett is a C2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher, has published extensively in academic journals and presented at a number of international conferences. He has been appointed as a Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth assessment report (AR6), was an expert for scoping of AR7, and has been appointed to the UNFCCC Roster of Experts on climate change matters related to UNFCCC activities, having completed a number of the UNFCCC training courses.