Australian businesswoman Christine Corbett says the environmental crisis is giving new urgency to the need to decarbonise energy production in Australia.
Ms Corbett was CEO Elect of AGL Australia before its failed demerger from AGL Energy and said she was disappointed that the company’s plan to create a new operating model was derailed.
At today’s QUT Business Leaders’ Forum, Ms Corbett stood by the company’s vision of how it could transition to greener energy production, as Australia faced an unprecedented energy crisis.
“We can see the devastating impact of natural disasters, the need for ambitious climate goals, the importance of energy security and supply, the immediate pressure on energy affordability and the imperative for companies and governments and communities to work together in the same direction to reach the destination of a net zero world.”
But Ms Corbett said any changes needed to be planned carefully so that the power network was maintained.
“We need the lights to stay on. This is a system that was built for one purpose and that was for one-way distribution of power, it wasn’t built for a solar farm here, a wind farm here, a hydro farm here, different households here, community batteries here, connected so that people don’t get electrocuted,” she said.
Ms Corbett said Australia’s energy market would see more change in the next decade than has been observed in the previous century.
“So, as much as you want the vision, the urgency – there’s no greater challenge on the planet – the plan has to be pragmatic. It has to ask, ‘What are you going to do tomorrow and what are you going to do this week,’ because you have to start biting off the elephant in chunks, and that’s where our plan was different,” she said.
Ms Corbett said focussing public attention on greening energy production helped maintain a sense of urgency.
“We talk about net zero 2050 – it is 28 years away and it is hard to maintain momentum, urgency and crisis for 28 years,” she said.
Bernard Reilly, Chief Executive Officer of Australian Retirement Trust, will speak at the next QUT Business Leaders’ Forum on 31 August 2022.
