NSW Energy Minister, Fijian PM, European Climate Foundation chief, ACTU President, business leaders tackle climate challenge Emissions Reduction Summit
At today’s Carbon Market Institute Emissions Reduction Summit, Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, NSW Minister for Energy, Matt Kean, ACTU President Michele O’Neil and other leaders including Shayne Elliot, ANZ CEO, are grappling with the challenges and opportunities in the most critical transition in generations.
The Summit continues tomorrow and there is still time to register to attend virtually. The full program is here.
Tomorrow’s program features Angus Taylor, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction and Chris Bowen, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy (who will take questions), amongst other leaders from business, government and civil society.
Quotes are attributable to speakers below as indicated.
Please register so you can access replays of their presentations in full and see the quotes in context. Full program here.
Michele O’Neil, President, ACTU
“Politicians like to don high-vis vests and travel to regions with carbon intensive industries and claim that they stand for jobs and against carbon taxes. No doubt we’ll see this ramp up as we move towards the next election. This cosplay … is deeply dishonest. Pretending change won’t happen and failure to plan for the jobs of the future is letting down all Australians and particularly workers in carbon intensive industries. The Morison government pamphlet on how we’re going to get to net zero emissions means we have no real plan for Australian jobs while the rest of the world decarbonises.”
“As we get closer to another federal election, where the issue of climate change will be weaponized and the impact on jobs used as a threat to stop action, I want to make it really clear that Australian workers and the unions are already living the climate crisis.”
“Firefighters are living it when they fight earlier and more extreme fires. Health workers live it when they treat patients with heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation. Construction, agricultural workers and public service maintaining our national parks live it in when their health is on the line as they work through heat waves. Coal miners are living it too… because their industry faces an uncertain outlook as a result of global markets re orientating towards low emissions energy.”
“So, we support ambitious action and targets to cut emissions – like most of the rest of the world, net zero emissions by 2050 and strong action to reduce emissions by the end of this decade, consistent with the efforts made by the US, Japan and European nations and now put forward by the Federal Opposition.”
“The Paris Agreement and the Glasgow climate pact both explicitly support climate ambition and a just transition. Many countries are taking their commitment to a just transition just as seriously as their reductions targets… There is a public responsibility for ensuring that communities are not left on their own to manage the impact of the transition to a low emissions. Forty-six nations, but certainly not Australia, reiterated this commitment in Glasgow. They are committed to developing a national just transition plan alongside their emissions targets. Some of these nations are spending big on supporting workers and communities through the transition to net zero emissions. The European Union, the US, South Africa, Canada, Egypt and Indonesia all have national just transition planning and programs.”
“We all know that Australia is lagging behind the pace on emissions targets – and we haven’t even entered the race when it comes to national planning for a just transition.”
“Australia’s lack of a coherent plan to cut emissions is not doing workers justice.”
NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean:
“When it comes to climate policy, governments should lead and in NSW, that’s certainly the case. NSW wants to seize the mammoth investment opportunities available to us.”
“We know that targets matter for investor confidence. NSW was already committed to net zero by 2050. We are now aiming for a 50 per cent cut by 2030.”
“Our targets are backed by the nation’s largest ever renewable energy plan. The response from investors has been overwhelming.”
“Our Net Zero Industry and Innovation Program is a $750 million initiative to support emerging clean technologies, foster enabling infrastructure and help heavy industries shift their emissions profile. Over 400 organisations have expressed interest in participating.”
“We’ve witnessed similar enthusiasm for our Renewable Energy Zones. Both Central-West Orana and New England zones were massively over-subscribed from potential projects.
One received four times the interest needed to build it and the other received nine times the interest. In total, the five zones will deliver 12 gigawatts of renewable energy generation and two gigawatts of long duration storage by 2030.”
“We have also now commenced market engagement under the Hydrogen Strategy unveiled in October, seeking expressions of interest from commercial scale green hydrogen projects to build hydrogen hubs.”
“Our strategy will create new opportunities for heavy industry – unlocking $80 billion in investment. We believe it can slash the cost of hydrogen from $5.80 per kilogram to below $2.80.”
“We will also soon be announcing our Primary Industries Productivity and Abatement Program.
It will develop market and industry foundations, develop data and metrics and build critical mass and capacity.”
“It will help primary producers to boost productivity, reduce their emissions, improve carbon management and enhance biodiversity on their land, alongside production.”
“The Program will also enable primary producers and land managers to demonstrate their environmental performance to consumers, investors and the supply chain, and to develop new revenue streams through carbon markets.”
Frank Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji and Chair, Pacific Island Forum:
“It is troubling that Australia’s long term net zero strategy relies heavily on aspirational solutions such as carbon capture technology that do not exist.”
“We need to see more ambition [from Australia] to break what can be fairly called a dangerous addiction to coal. We understand the place coal occupies in the Australian economy and in Australian history and culture, but the entire world must move more quickly to end its dependency on this deadly fossil fuel…We need to take this option off the table and Australia is not only in an influential position to phase out coal sales globally, it is also in a position to become a centre for global energy innovation with its abundance of indigenous renewable energy potential.”
“[At COP26] many countries placed far too much emphasis on 2050, given that the best hope for limiting global average temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees is contingent on what we do between now and 2030. We would encourage Australia to reconsider the comments it made after COP26 that it would not revisit its 2030 targets. The opportunity to contest this vital tenet of the Glasgow Climate Pact was during COP26 not after it.”
Fiji has called for a Grand Coalition to fight climate change, recognising that collaboration across borders and hemispheres and between economies and sectors was needed to tackle the climate crisis…Governments, of course, continue to play a major role. They have critical levers for change at their disposal. Businesses and the decision-makers that drive them also have direct ability to enact change.
Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation:
“The 2030 milestone is really important. It was a disappointment not to see Australia coming [to Glasgow] with a better target [than the one] announced in 2015 of a 26 to 28% emission reduction by 2030. And it was even more disappointing to see two days after the conclusion of COP26, that your prime minister walked back from the commitments made at Glasgow almost before the ink was dry.”
“It’s a pity because of the gift that Australia has received from nature. Australia could be a world leader in green energy, and at the same time with all the precious natural resources you have, to protect them for tourism or for your [other] activities. You have enormous potential in job creation, understanding that it has to be carried on in a just way, in particular for the people and the regions affected by this shift from fossil fuel to renewable energy.”
William Lin, Executive Vice President, Regions, Cites and Solutions, BP:
“In the US, the green economy now employs around 10 times as many people as the hydrocarbon industry despite the recent boom years in oil and gas.”
“For the energy transition to work, we have to be able to put people into work. Collectively, we have to bring people on the journey, provide confidence and offer opportunities. People quite rightly need to know that a transition will offer them jobs as well as affordable energy and user-friendly and accessible mobility. And there are real reasons for optimism.”
Shayne Elliott, CEO, ANZ:
“When we spoke to investors and customers three, four years ago, very much the tone was about all the things we’re not going to do as a bank. How do we avoid stranded asset risk, those things which are very, very real and regulators are concerned, rightly, about – stress testing our portfolios and lending books in terms of what if things go wrong? What’s really shifted, and I think COP26 was a pivot point, is that the conversation is about the opportunity.”
“There’s been this…realisation that in order to make the transition that is required and that everybody’s committed to, it needs finance and many, many trillions of dollars. Banks are a really critical element of that transition and are asking how are we going to responsibly lend and provide the capital that is needed towards that transition? And so that’s really quite a significant tonal shift in the conversation right across capital markets.”
“What’s also changing now is a much clearer focus around the work that needs to start now, what needs to be done in this decade as opposed to just buying time and waiting for the long term.”
“Capital is generally quite patient and looks for returns, and capital goes where it’s welcome. Capital needs to understand the rules, and that needs some level of predictability. The biggest risk that bankers are considering when thinking about allocating capital is regulatory risk. If we invest, what are the chances the rules are going to change from a governance perspective? That is probably the single biggest unknown and that’s where we need government policy clarity because that will give capital confidence.”
Frédéric Baudry, President, Australia, Senior VP Fuels & Low Carbon Solutions, Asia Pacific, BP
“We’re looking very much at 2030, at originating a range of projects that will diversify the energy mix. The energy transition has begun.”
It’s relevant that we get started here in Asia. On the demand side Asia is 53% of global emissions, 82% of the urban population and two thirds of the growth, and the battle is likely to be won here. And on the supply side Australia is advantaged by an abundance of renewable energy sources and capability and know how.
“The policy framework really matters. It will take market mechanisms and the right policy settings to continue incentivizing transition and those mechanisms will be essential to help stimulate demand and really bring the technologies that we are prepared to invest in down the cost curve.”
“We have to realize that the energy transition is broader than just emissions. It is integration with the communities in which we’re going to be operating to ensure a fair and sustainable transition. We see that as an obligation because there is business opportunity but it is also the right thing for society.”
Fiona Wild, VP, Sustainability & Climate Change, BHP:
“We need to be super, super clear that we are doing what we say we’re doing. And so as litigation risk and reputational risk associated with that increases, it becomes much much more important to make sure there’s no misalignment between what you’re saying and what you’re doing. And it does change the process of disclosure inside an organization when you are scrutinizing to that level of detail.”
“The way forward is about taking action, so go and do it. It is about partnership, working with others, and optimism that we can achieve what we want to achieve.”
James Schultz, CEO, GreenCollar:
“The accounting has to stack up. It’s got to be transparent, it has to have integrity. And I think one thing that people may not appreciate, but if you’re on either the sell or the buy side of a carbon transaction, you’re the two organizations that have the highest interest in integrity, more than any other stakeholder around the table. Because if something goes wrong with those projects, you’re the two organizations that are accountable for the lack of integrity.”
“We’ve got to completely change the economy. And so from Green collar’s perspective, our ambition is to see these sorts of projects, environmental markets, projects on every farm and country. That’s where we see we’re headed.”
Noah Deich, President Carbon180
“If we want to tackle the climate crisis, we must go beyond net zero to negative emissions. This means that we not only need to decouple emissions from economic growth, we’re going to have to start cleaning up carbon that remains in the atmosphere from historical emissions – the nearly 2 trillion tonnes of CO2 that have already been emitted as a result of fossil fuel use.”
“We will need to remove almost as much carbon every year from the atmosphere, and sequester it, as we emit today”.
“Large scale carbon removal at competitive prices will dramatically reduce the costs of getting that last mile of decarbonisation complete – and we’re simply not going to get there if the costs are too great for society to bear.”
“On the technical side, there is more than enough potential to sequester all of the carbon that we need to meet our climate goals. The real challenges now are scale, speed, and delivering carbon removal outcomes without negative unintended consequences to people, communities or ecosystems, as we capitalise on the economic opportunity presented by the enormous carbon cleanup effort ahead of us.”
Other speakers today include the following:
The Q&A function allows all attendees to ask questions throughout the vast majority of sessions, which will be addressed where possible by the moderator.
A/Prof. Malte Meinshausen, Director, Climate & Energy College, University of Melbourne
Rachel Kyte, Co-Chair, Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative
Kobad Bhavnagri, Global Head of Industry & Building Decarbonisation, BloombergNEF
Marc Vanheukelen, Ambassador at Large for Climate Diplomacy, European Union
Rory Lonergan, ED & Head of Infrastructure, Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Susie Smith, CEO, Australian Industry Greenhouse Network
Gregg Buskey, Executive GM, Strategy & Business Development, Shell Energy Australia
David Parker, Chair, Clean Energy Regulator
Dean Yibarbuk, Director, Indigenous Carbon Industry Network
Rowan Foley, CEO, Aboriginal Carbon Foundation
As part of today’s program, Renewable Energy Hub will be discussing its new carbon price benchmarking tool
CMI CEO John Connor said, “This year’s Summit is our largest yet, and comes as Australia looks ahead to a crucial decade in climate action at a time of unprecedented investor, international and community scrutiny. Following COP26 and with a looming Federal election in Australia, the event is designed to include a special focus on more ambitious 2030 scenarios and the extra policies needed en route to net-zero emissions by or before 2050.”
