Action on climate change continues to challenge everyone. As Australia inches closer to a price on carbon Annabel Crabb (ABC’s Chief Online Political Correspondent) asks six leading Australian’s if anyone really has the courage to act.
Senator Penny Wong takes on this challenge. She was Australia’s Climate Change minister through our first two attempts to introduce a carbon trading scheme. Now the finance minister, she talks about how climate change exposes the shortcomings in our political system. We need to cooperate for the long term. The facts about climate change are obvious… yet they’ve become irrelevant. Watch her short opening pitch.
The full line up is Niki Vincent (Leaders Institute) introducing the forum and talking about the adaptive leadership challenge we face. She highlights “climate change means giving up on some things . But in such a shift there are many opportunities for liberation and creativity”
Andrew Stock (Origin Energy) is the first panellist to take on the challenge. He has no doubt that our society can tackle climate change head on. Previously the Marshall Plan rebuilt whole countries. Imagine what we can do like this to address this problem.
David Klingberg (Centrex Metals) focuses, in part, on the need to fund adaptation. We urgently need to review our funding priorities. He’s followed by Senator Wong “hardest action for politician is to ask people to act now to make tomorrow better” (video above).
Professor Mike Young (Environment Institute) highlights how counter intuitive we are about climate change. “Why would any nation go out and subsidise the destruction of the planet?” he asks. And we perversely almost ignore more significant price impacts, e.g. from much larger currency exchange price movements.
David Knox (Santos) puts forward the numbers on change. Santos action demonstrates the potential as does his own. As the company CEO he is nevertheless in part motivated and challenged by his children to make a difference.
Stephen Yarwood (Lord Mayor Adelaide) finishes the 2 minute leadership summaries with a another personal perspective. Am I being authentic? Ask your children, ask your parents. That’s why he drives an electric car and supports a carbon tax.
The full panel dissuasion with audience questions is also online – watch to the end of question time for a most pertinent and apt pacific island summary. Climate change is already impacting the questioner’s islands. People are currently already losing their land and culture as a result.
I get the last say summarising some of our panels discussion and some of paradoxes – do we really have the leadership courage? While other countries talk about green growth and deep greenhouse gas emissions cuts in Australia we are fractured. We have a highly polarised and divisive community debate.