#1 Young Professionals Event in Canberra, March 5
#2 ABS Picture of Australia
#3 Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change
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#1 Young Professionals Event in Canberra, March 5
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Please distribute the link for your networks for the upcoming Young Professional Alliance Showcase event hosted by Meetings Events Australia on March 5.
http://www1.sumix.com.au/~sumix_files/mea/070214_mea_act.html
Phillip Jones
Chair
Young Professional Alliance
Networking, Achievement, Collaboration
www.ypa.net.au I chair@ypa.net.au
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#2 ABS Picture of Australia
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Australian Bureau of Statistics newly released:
Year Book Australia, 2007
ABS document number: 1301.0
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/1301.0?OpenDocument
Australia at a Glance, 2007
ABS document number: 1309.0
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/1309.0?OpenDocument
Consumer Price Index, Australia, Dec 2006
ABS document number: 6401.0
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6401.0?OpenDocument
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#3 Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change
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The Australian Business Rountable on Climate Change now has a website where you can find reports that they have commissioned and recommendations to government.
http://www.businessroundtable.com.au/html/jointceo.html
As business leaders representing a cross-section of the Australian economy, we believe that climate change is a major business risk and we need to act now.
There is broad consensus that climate change is real, the potential impacts are significant and we need to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is currently no agreement on how best to respond, when this response should begin and what it will cost.
Business is understandably concerned about the impact this response could have on Australia’s economy and international competitiveness. We believe there is a need to balance this with the potential impacts of climate change on Australia and the economic costs of continuing policy uncertainty.
Together with the Australian Conservation Foundation, we formed the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change. The Roundtable commissioned independent research from CSIRO to quantify climate impacts on Australia. This research confirms that Australia is particularly vulnerable to climate change. The economic impacts are significant and widespread, affecting in particular Australia’s leading export earners, agriculture and tourism. This will have flow-on effects for the whole economy.
However, CSIRO has concluded that reducing global greenhouse emissions will reduce the rate and magnitude of climate change. Even if we cannot avoid further warming, we will have more time to adapt to a harsher and more varied climate.
Given the incentive to act and to act early, the Roundtable commissioned the Allen Consulting Group to analyse what it will cost Australia to substantially reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, as part of an international response, and model the respective costs of early and delayed action.
This research demonstrates that Australia can deliver significant reductions at an affordable cost. Furthermore, the longer we delay action, the more expensive it becomes for business and for the wider Australian economy.
These findings have near-term policy implications for Australia. We support government calls for a collaborative approach to climate change as demonstrated by the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate and recent Council of Australian Governments initiatives (CoAG). However, we believe Australia needs to do more.
We ask Australian governments to work together, for example, through CoAG to develop nationally consistent climate change policies, supported by all jurisdictions. This approach will ensure that Australia has an economically and environmentally effective national response and provides the necessary certainty for investors.
The Roundtable suggests that business and governments work together to frame policies on three fronts:
* Design a long, loud and legal framework to establish a price signal;
* Encourage innovation and investment in emerging and breakthrough technologies; and
* Build national resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The Roundtable believes the full package of recommendations outlined in this report will create the necessary investment conditions to enable Australia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining strong economic growth. We believe this response is in the national interest and call on governments to adopt the recommendations now to allow business to respond effectively.
Signed:
Gerry Hueston President BP Australasia Michael Hawker CEO Insurance Australia Group Grant King Managing Director Origin Energy
Keith Scott Head of Australia & NZ Swiss Re Harry Debney CEO Visy Industries David Morgan CEO Westpac
http://www.businessroundtable.com.au/html/recommendations.html
The Roundtable's report, The Business Case for Early Action, makes the following key recommendations:
1. Design a "long, loud and legal" framework to establish a price signal
2. Set a long-term aspirational goal for Australia to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions as our contribution to a global effort designed to avert dangerous climate impacts.
3. Set a short-term binding target for Australia in 2020 to facilitate a smooth transition to a low-carbon economy and as a milestone towards achieving the long-term goal.
4. Introduce a national market-based carbon pricing mechanism to deliver cost-effective emission reductions:
* Clearly signal a framework by 2007
* Design the mechanism to deliver comprehensive national coverage by 2013
* Link the mechanism to the binding 2020 target and the long-term aspirational goal
* Design the mechanism to allow for international linkages
* Until international linkages are established, employ transparent policies to maintain international competitiveness of trade-exposed sectors
* Re-state the ‘no disadvantage’ principle for early action to reduce emissions.
5. Make a public statement that government will not provide an indemnity against future carbon risk and investors will be required to fully manage their own exposure.
6. Accelerate efforts to manage energy and reduce GHG emissions:
* Build on the National Framework for Energy Efficiency process by mandating best practice performance standards for buildings, vehicles, fuels and appliances
* Develop one clear framework for GHG emission and abatement reporting among all governments to better identify opportunity and risk
* Coordinate a national consumer awareness program on climate change in line with other successful campaigns such as water conservation.
7. Encourage innovation and investment in emerging and breakthrough technologies
8. Engage with business and the community to expand fiscal incentives to encourage deployment of emerging and breakthrough technologies for power generation and transport to build scale and reduce costs, such as tax credits, accelerated depreciation and programs like the Low Emission Technology Demonstration Fund.
9. Build modelling capacity in Australia sufficient to estimate the full economic cost of climate change and provide a cost-benefit analysis for future mitigation and adaptation actions.
10. Create a stronger science and technology culture through targeted school and university campaigns, and increased funding for centres of excellence to support the development and deployment of breakthrough technologies in Australia.
11. Build national resilience to the impacts of climate change
12. Develop, fund and implement a national strategy to build resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate impacts by fully integrating adaptation into development and planning processes to address, for example, building codes, water resources, health responses, biodiversity, heritage areas and climate-dependent industries.
http://www.businessroundtable.com.au/html/documents.html
http://www.businessroundtable.com.au/html/reading.html
