Theme: Building Resilience
Keynote speaker: Mark Carney, Governor Bank of England
Introduction
This year’s National Conference featured presentations from a high-profile panel of speakers. Following the presentations was a panel discussion, with some robust discussion of current issues facing the business world and the ways in which businesses are tackling the step-change opportunities presented by the carbon reduction challenge.
Summaries from each of the speakers are available on this page. Click on the link below to go to your chosen speaker's summary.
Mark Carney, Governor, Bank of England
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England kindly agreed to produce a video to set the scene for the 2019 Climate Alliance National Conference that was held in Melbourne on 19 November 2019.
The twelve minute video provides an overview of the astonishing progress made by global businesses over the last three years to tackle the risks presented by climate change. He also spoke in detail about the three “R’s” - Reporting, Risk management and Return to help manage the coming transition.
Key messages from Mark Carney:
Australia’s transition to a lower carbon economy will bring both risks and opportunities.
Businesses will need to re-assess virtually every financial asset. Those firms that learn to adapt will be rewarded handsomely. Those that fail to adapt will cease to exist.
A number of the largest global asset managers have estimated that their assets are currently aligned to a 3.5oC world. They have committed to change their portfolios to be consistent with a 1.5oC scenario by 2050. This will require a substantial restructure of their portfolios in the near term. The Bank of England recommends that other industries should take a similar approach.
The Fifth Estate has published a great summary of the speech.
This video is large and will take a few seconds to load - please be patient as it’s well worth the wait.
Professor Fran Sheldon, Dean (Learning & Teaching), Griffith University
“Are we sacrificing the ‘boom’ and prolonging the ‘bust’? Water resource development and hydrological variability in Australia’s dryland rivers.”
Professor Sheldon outlined how the river systems in the upper Murray Darling Basin cycled from flood to drought and how critical it is to maintain water flows during dry periods. Even when compared to other big rivers, Australia’s rivers experience extreme variability.
Tony Battaglene, Chief Executive, Australian Grape and Wine Incorporated
“Climate change challenges to making wine.”
Tony Battaglene observed that the Australian wine industry was the “canary in the coal mine” for Australian primary producers. With the benefits of many decades of accurate weather data, wine producers have long been aware of the impacts of climate change on wine production. The impacts range from storms, hail, fire (and the impact of smoke on wine taste) and sunburn. The logistics of wine production are being challenged by the changes in the season. Wine growers need to plant grapes that are better suited to the changing climate and we need to learn to appreciate them!
Sean Hanley, VP Sales and Marketing Operations, Toyota
“Toyota’s commitment to the creation of a more inclusive and sustainable society through mobility.”
Sean Hanley said that the founder of Toyota anticipated the challenges from climate change more than 80 years ago. Toyota has been a pioneer in low emission vehicles since introducing the hybrid in 2001. Selling this car has been a huge challenge for Toyota, but 18 years later, Toyota expects that hybrids will make up 20% of Australian new car sales by 2025. Sean expects that hydrogen vehicles will become the fuel of choice – subject to the availability of hydrogen filling stations. He anticipates the range of these cars will be 600KM.
Susie Wood, Principal BHP
“BHP: Evolving our approach to climate change.”
BHP has been taking action to reduce its carbon footprint since the 1990’s and responding to climate change is a priority strategic issue for the company. Importantly, the CEO of BHP made landmark speech in London where he announced that BHP would help its customers reduce their carbon footprint when processing BHP ore products. The emissions of these customers is 40 times greater than BHP’s alone.
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