Forewords by CEO and Monica Richter of WWF

IN MY VIEW

Elections matter

ELECTIONS IN AUSTRALIA remind me of primary school sports carnivals.

Split into teams, with imaginative names like ‘red team’ (or blue, green or yellow team), every year was the same. Your real friends were always in other teams, and some bossy year sixers made everyone cheer, hell bent on getting the team bonus points for the most banners.

And so we turn up to vote. Metaphorically wearing the scarf with the colour allocated at birth. Informed by family history. Class. Grandad’s views on the world. Never questioned, a matter of identity. And then we fight our way into the polling place, past every team desperate to score the bonus points for the most team banners.

This colour is good. That colour is bad.

I hope this year will be different. I hope people vote on issues and policy, not on team colours.

When it comes to smart energy policy there are five simple things to look out for. Helping renewable energy, not hindering it. Planning and building ahead of the need to close coal. Encouraging a rapid transition to electric vehicles powered by renewable energy, and a climate policy guided by the science, not vested interests.

I know it takes a bit more work. All the teams say they are doing heaps, when really some are dead set against renewables and pro fossil fuels like coal and gas. Some teams even bring lumps of the stuff into parliament with them. So doing the research should not be too hard, just beware the greenwashing ads on TV.

You see, we are not at primary school any more. How we vote matters. In every electorate across the country. We get what we choose.

At this election ditch the coloured scarf and go for substance instead.

Give Australia the zero carbon, smart energy future it deserves.

We still need a massive shift in capital allocation from high to low carbon investments and that means not investing in or building any new high carbon infrastructure assets. We need to get out of the CO2 business quick smart.

We are all stakeholders in a better more climate safe future. We know the urgency of the challenge. To have any chance of keeping warming to 1.5°C we need to halve emissions globally well before 2050. The recent IPCC Report Working Group II: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability makes a clear and compelling case for why we need to accelerate action. It is in our common interests to do so.

John Grimes, Chief Executive Smart Energy Council

Monica Richter is Senior Manager Low Carbon Futures with WWF-Australia

EVERY WEEK BRINGS new and more urgent and exciting developments on the climate and energy front. Over the past few weeks, we have seen Origin Energy announce the early closure of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station, an M&A play on AGL by a billionaire disrupter and a large international pension fund, and Rio Tinto calling for a higher carbon price to drive market signals to avoid dangerous climate change.

I have been a climate action advocate from the late 1990s working to stem the worse effects of climate change. My work has involved policy and industry advocacy engaging with industry and cities to drive change. It has been a tough ride, dealing often with denialism, obfuscation, delay and sheer bastardry to overturn or delay well-crafted carbon policies.

In my work I have tried to be practical, and solutions focussed. The success of the Science Based Targets Initiative, the Business Renewables Centre-Australia and now the Materials and Embodied Carbon Leaders’ Alliance, are a testimony of the hunger within corporate Australia and within governments to be part of the solution and drive change at scale within their businesses and supply chains.

The thing that inspires me today is the pace of change, although we still have a long way to go to create a climate safe future.

There is a rapid energy transition towards clean electrons and clean molecules to power our buildings and transport, and as a feedstock for our industry. The commitment to scaling this transition requires investment by patient capital to support the disruptors, entrepreneurs and start-ups as well as supporting the incumbents to make the transition.

“We need to get out of the CO2 business quick smart.”