The big questions

It’s always complicated when you talk about where we lead and where we lag because each energy system is different and each economy is different. However it is clear that we don’t have the overarching policy framework that some other countries do have to guide how they move towards a clean energy future so with that in mind, actually that can be a strength in where we lead is actually the ground groundswell movement that has, I guess, delivered us a distributed energy strength in Australia and where we actually lead the world. There’s the amount of rooftop solar that we’re installing on our roofs and we can learn from that and we can provide those lessons to the world so you know, from a researchers perspective that’s extremely exciting and I believe that given our geography and the way our energy system is structured that we can actually show the world how a distributed energy future can be a really fantastic solution to this transition problem.

How is the finance sector responding to climate change and what does the next five years hold?

As of next week all three parts of the finance sector will have signed up to principle-based UN commitments. So for 12 years the insurance sectors have principal sustainable insurance, now there’s been the principles of responsible investing and next week it will be around 140 banks internationally will sign principles of responsible banking, and four of our largest banks will be signing up. W why that’s so important is it means that everyone will be thinking about how they positively impact on environmental and social and governance issues.

I think we’ve had such a challenge looking at electricity and shifting our energy markets and that’s all happening now at pace with the cost of renewables really driving the transition now we’re becoming aware of the significant emissions that come from agriculture forestry land base uses. And the exciting thing there is yes it is a big challenge but it also is a very significant potential solution if we could reward producers for cultivating natural capital which happens to be good for productivity, resilience, well-being of animals, soil quality imagine – it’s a different revenue stream and it offers great hope for sequestering. The other really exciting aspect of that in mining, Australia has developed the Met sector the technology services that go around mining the economic multiplier is very very significant for those services. AG tech is a nascent class of technology that will have similar multiplier effects coming under the ground now and facilitates this revolution in land management because from satellites, to drones to robotics sensors there are all kinds of technologies that will help farmers to understand minimisation strategies for water when and how to harvest how to minimise inefficiency and waste all of that can be technology driven so opportunities everywhere.

Your book has a conclusion of hope – what gives you hope for the future? You say that Australia could lead in clean energy – what’s the main reason for that?

When I did my work for all the states and the federal government 11 years ago we could see we had to do something about climate change but It was going to be costly porous, it’s just that doing something about it was going to be less costly than suffering the damage from climate change. That’s changed, it’s now clear there’s very large economic opportunity for Australia. My hope is that that will provide the bridge over which all Australians can what can walk to take effective action to build the zero emissions economy. If economic prosperity and the opportunity to grasp but you can’t bring us together then it’s hard to think what will. You say that Australia could lead in clean energy – what’s the main reason for that? Australia’s got distinctively the best natural resources for renewable energy in the world at the moment the base of expansion of renewable energy around the world his solar and wind and the combinations of excellent wind and excellent solar that we have has no parallel in the rest of the world. In the developed world most countries have far inferior solar and and inferior wind and we put them both in reasonable proximity to each other. Having them both means that you don’t have to invest as much in firming so unless we muck it up we should be the low energy cost country in the zero emissions world to which we're all headed. And we’ve got a base of minerals of opportunities to to grow biomass at a low cost because of our immense land endowment per person that when added with energy can make us that the natural home of a wide range of minerals and materials processing and manufactures.