Dr Prest is a Senior Lecturer at the ANU College of Law, specialising in environmental law with interests in administrative law and litigation, and is a Member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law.

He is a Member of the Executive of the Australian National University’s Energy Change Institute – a cross-campus inter-disciplinary network devoted to energy issues. His primary expertise is in national level sustainable energy law and policy for deep decarbonisation. Apart from his research interest in international climate law, his main research focus is in comparative review of national and sub national law and regulation for energy and transport sectors.

His research has a strong focus on comparative environmental law, with an emphasis on renewable energy and climate change law, examining the legal and policy barriers to increased investment in renewable electricity generation. His work applies a comparative law approach to critically analyse key policy choices and legislative models in the field of domestic energy and climate law, drawing upon Australian, EU, Indonesian, and Japanese experience in the last decade.