Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Griffith for the opportunity to speak to this important issue. Last month Australia's first National climate risk assessment report found that every aspect of our nation will be affected by climate change—the economy, food systems in communities, health, national security, transport, energy and, perhaps most of all, our natural environment.

We are already paying the cost of climate change. According to the Actuaries Institute, more than 1.6 million Australians are spending more than a month's income every year on insurance premiums. With even a moderate emissions reduction scenario, the cost of recovering from floods, bushfires, storm surges and tropical cyclones could be more than $40 billion every year within 25 years. Australian property values could decrease in value by over $600 billion by 2050. Lost labour productivity could reduce our economic output by hundreds of billions of dollars, and disruptions in global supply chains due to extreme weather events could affect import and export markets. Government budgets will be eroded by the loss of our tax base and by increased spending on disaster recovery and human welfare. The report's implicit message is that we need to cut our emissions faster and more effectively. In that context, the government's 2035 emissions reduction target of 62 to 70 per cent by 2030 is inadequate.

Australia has much to gain from the clean energy transition. Our world-class sun and wind resources can underpin new export industries and manufacturing in energy intensive commodities like iron and steel. Deloitte modelling found that, in a competitive global environment, a 65 per cent target is actually unlikely to drive the capital, innovation and jobs expenditure required for us to build those new export industries. It suggested that a more ambitious emissions reduction target of 75 per cent by 2035 could yield $227 billion in additional GDP over 10 years, growing to $490 billion within 25 years.

The Investor Group on Climate Change also found that Australia could lead in the global energy transition, but, without clear policy signals and adequate capital deployment, we risk being left behind. We risk missing out on huge economic opportunities.

It's clear that it's not going to be a straightforward transition. To date, we've already been focusing on the low-hanging fruit: rooftop solar and subsidies for large-scale renewable projects. But even that rollout is facing mounting obstacles: delays; rising costs; infrastructure bottlenecks; and localised opposition to the transition lines, which are required to connect new wind and new solar farms to the grid.

The uncertainty of sector pathways to net zero emission technologies in some hard-to-abate sectors adds another layer of challenge. We can argue about how to deal with those challenges, but what is beyond doubt is the need to urgently accelerate our climate action. While the transition to renewables is complex, any backward steps—whether they be weak climate targets, pauses in government support for renewable projects or the approval of new fossil fuel projects—all of these fly in the face of science, reason and our future prosperity.

Ambitious climate targets provide businesses with the clarity and the confidence to deploy the capital and workers we will need to actually make the net zero transition happen. They're also crucial to attracting international investment and talent. With nuclear being too slow, coal-fired power stations too unreliable and the cost of gas just too much, clear policy settings are critical to enable investment in renewable energy. Our 2035 climate targets matter not only to Australia but internationally as well. Countries can slow global warming only by working together. What we do here sends a clear signal to our trading partners and to our international peers.

Australia has more to lose than most countries from climate change but more to gain in leading the effort to combat it. The future for climate action is here. That means delivering more ambitious climate action now.

See this speech in context