PhD in Sustainable Futures

Honorary Industry/Professional Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Futures in the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research's Office, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Research focus: resource efficiency policies, green growth, and resource productivity-climate mitigation nexus

Bishal’s research is exploring the empirical evidence from the past to come up with an integrative policy approach that will ultimately bolster system thinking, and will provide opportunities for policy coherence to leverage the synergetic effect of resource efficiency-oriented policies.

Bishal’s research is built on his learnings from nine years of professional and research experience with government, non-government international organisations, and research institutions in Nepal, Sweden, Republic of Korea and Australia. He is researching on the fundamentals of emerging growth and policy paradigms that aim to reconcile the economy-environment tension.

CV as submitted for the Green Talents award (2015):

Sanepa Chowk, Lalitpur, Nepal

Research focus: cleaner production in industries through solar water heating systems as a supplemental energy supply

The aim of Bishal Baniya’s research on Solar Water Heating is to use this technology to explore opportunities for replacing certain quantities of non-renewable solid fuels, thereby reducing CO2 and un-burnt black carbon emissions.

Between 2004 and 2014, the proportion of Nepal covered by forest decreased from 40% to 25% of the nation’s total area. This can be attributed to the high usage of firewood in Nepalese industries, many of which utilise conventional energy sources in their manufacturing processes. Carpet and Pashmina industries, Nepal’s second and third most profitable sectors employ very traditional production methods and thus significantly rely on the use of non-renewable fuels. Bishal wants to explore opportunities for replacing certain non-renewable solid fuels, such as wood, saw dust, rice husk etc. and also explore methods for reducing the emission of CO2 and un-burnt black carbon within industries through the use of a Solar Water Heating system (SWH).

According to Bishal, his research is very much related to sustainable development. It aims to enhance the economic competitiveness of Nepalese industries while simultaneously improving their environmental and social performance. Bishal is currently working as a Technical Advisor in Energy, Environment and Climate Change for a European Union (EU) funded SWITCH-Asia program in Nepal. He believes that he bears a huge responsibility for helping transform more than 70 industries in Nepal into cleaner and safer ones.

The jury complimented Bishal’s valuable and focussed career aims. They expect that he will gain a lot from the Green Talents Forum that will help him develop his research into aiding the transition of Nepalese industries into sustainable ones.