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Events Archive 2010

EBA series: 'New markets, new industries, new jobs'
Investing in speeding and scaling up Australia's competitiveness in the Green Economy
This Environment Business Australia series of events was about the emerging and smart technologies, today's expertise and tomorrow's infrastructure, progressive capital and strategic policy - in short, the BIG ideas, coupled of course with the political will - that could shape sustainable and long-term prosperity.

Britain, Europe, USA and China are fast-tracking the 'Green Economy'. Australia is lagging behind. We can only catch up if we harness our strong comparative advantages and develop the strategies necessary to build the transition to 'new markets, new industries and new jobs'.

ET is now a faster growing sector than IT! The challenges are great, but so are the opportunities in replacing or upgrading outdated infrastructure and systems, and building the next generation of capital stock. While all future capital investment will be evaluated against climate, food, and fuel security issues, it is hardly an impost on society to tackle problems and create sustainable wealth - especially when much of the necessary action comes at no net cost, provides long-term wealth generation and offers co-benefits to the community (like cleaner air, less congested roads, more fertile soils and less tax paid to support overseas interests).

Let's get on with it!

• Let's think and act like a 'clean power park' by harnessing our vast endowments of renewable energy
• Let's avoid becoming the next Nauru by value-adding to our resources and making sure that Australians get the full benefit of their assets
• Let's be as efficient as possible with energy and materials
• Let's rebuild soil carbon across millions of hectares of degraded soil and improve agricultural productivity. And let's mimic nature to capture CO2 and produce biofuels that don't compete with food production
• Let's make our cities and transport systems the smartest in the world
• Let's make sure that wherever possible we transform problems into commercial opportunities that will be good for people, the environment, our economy and our security.

EBA rolled out a series of capital city forums and webinars focusing on investing in wealth-generating projects.

They were followed by a high level international conference in early 2011 showcasing Australia's best and brightest friends who told us that progressive growth towards a Green Economy required vision and leadership.

The objective was to assemble the real visionaries with 'how to' expertise to shape the future that Australians want, backed up with exemplar case studies from around the world. Business leaders, scientists, strategists, planners, architects, technology and infrastructure developers, financiers and policy makers have vital roles in galvanising the Green Economy - EBA was the 'catalyst' bringing them together to incubate commercial scale projects.

Background information sheet on the project approach that future events in capital cities will be based on: Click to download file

Power Park Australia, Sydney
24 June 2010

First event in the 'New markets, new industries, new jobs' series.

Can Australia exploit sufficient renewable energy sources to power most of its economy by 2040 or even 2030? Could it become a 'clean energy superpower' exporting low emission energy to Asia? And how feasible is it to think that Australia could value-add to its resources endowment by becoming a regional hub for minerals processing and even supply-chain manufacturing by co-locating energy intensive industry alongside solar thermal, geothermal, marine energy?

Leading experts took us through the opportunities as well as the challenges to scaling up renewable energy technology, building the necessary supply and transmission infrastructure, and harnessing the money to get it all done. They also examined potential limits to the vision.

• Presentation from event

PROGRAM

Welcome
Fiona Wain, CEO, Environment Business Australia

Overview - Green Economy renewable energy projects - delivering the potential
Stewart Taggart, Director, Desertec Australia - plans to harness solar thermal energy from the Sahara to provide electricity to Europe are big and bold. An introduction to how Australia could harness renewables on an even bigger scale.

Which emerging sources of renewable energy have 'scale' potential? What's the delivery system? And how fast can it be done?
Bertus de Graaf, CEO, Panax - How far off is industrial scale geothermal?
Dr Keith Lovegrove, Associate Professor and Head of Solar Thermal Group, ANU; Head of Solar Thermal at IT Power - Australia, India and the future of the race to harness concentrated solar thermal energy at scale
Dr Michael Ottaviano, CEO, Carnegie - Multiple application marine energy

What's the delivery system?
Albert Goller, CEO, Siemens - Picture the Future: Australia - Energy. Planning for a big, smart, fast, reliable grid and overhauling the transmission system to capitalise on new sources of energy

Panel discussion

'Power Park' Australia
Keynote - Professor Stephen Schneider (See below for Bio), one of the world's leading climate change scientists is a Professor at Stanford University specialising in science and policy. He is a joint winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and has recently published 'Science as a contact sport: Inside the battle to save Earth's climate'.

Discussion with delegates

The benefits of aggregating projects
Jonathan Whalley, CEO, Windesal - Local supplies of desalinated water

Mobilising capital to make it all happen in time
Peter Mansfield, Head of Project and Infrastructure Finance, Investec Bank - Galvanising capital to build Australia's next competitve edge
Andrew Petersen, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers - Clarity, consistency and encouragement needed in the regulatory framework

Stephen Schneider Bio

Stephen Schneider is one of the world's leading experts on climate change. He is a Stanford University Professor specialising in climate change science and policy. He is the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Professor of Biology, Professor (by courtesy) of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment.

Internationally recognised for research, policy analysis and outreach in climate change, Dr. Schneider focuses on climate change science, integrated assessment of ecological and economic impacts of human-induced climate change, and identifying viable climate policies and technological solutions. He has consulted widely with governments around the world and with United States federal agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush and Obama administrations.

His latest book 'Science as a contact sport: Inside the battle to save Earth's climate' has been published as a history of the global warming science and policy debate since 1970 and a rebuttal of the claims made by climate change sceptics.

Dr. Schneider received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Plasma Physics from Columbia University in 1971. He studied the role of greenhouse gases and suspended particulate material on climate as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 1972 and was a member of the scientific staff of NCAR from 1973-1996, where he co-founded the Climate Project.

He was honoured in 1992 with a MacArthur Fellowship for his ability to integrate and interpret the results of global climate research through public lectures, seminars, classroom teaching, environmental assessment committees, media appearances, Congressional testimony, and research collaboration with colleagues. He also received, in 1991, the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology, for furthering public understanding of environmental science and its implications for public policy. He was elected to membership in the US National Academy of Sciences in 2002.

Dr Schneider continues his work as a lead author on IPCC reports and is focusing on assessing key vulnerabilities and risks of climate change and the detection and attribution of climate changes and impacts. In 2007, after decades of work, Dr. Schneider, along with four generations of IPCC authors, received a collective Nobel Peace Prize for their joint efforts in 2007.

Stephen Schneider did a national tour of Australia for Greenhouse '88 event ,which opened up the public discussion of climate change policy in Australia, and in 2006 spent 6 months as an Adelaide Thinker in Residence, producing his report to the SA government: Climate Change - Risks and Opportunities. The concept of 'power parks' was one of his top ten recommendations.

The Value of the Environment with Ken Henry, Secretary to The Treasury
4 March 2010
Dr Ken Henry, Secretary to the Treasury, spoke on the value and valuation of the environment, elaborating on the discussion of sustainability, wellbeing and the environment in the Government's 2010 Intergenerational Report 'Australia to 2050: Future challenges'.

EBA forum on a more radical approach to financing low carbon projects with Peter Young,Strategy Director, Enviros
2 February 2010
This special EBA Forum discussed the implications of a Report, published in the UK by the Aldersgate Group, which argued that a more radical approach to financing low carbon projects is needed to ensure carbon targets are met.

• View Peter Young's presentation

Sustainable Business Australia supports innovative industries and new jobs for green economies
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