Joint statement: Working together to power Australia’s future

The Hon Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Climate Change and Energy  
The Hon Kate Thwaites MP, Special Envoy for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience 

Today I and Special Envoy for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Kate Thwaites were joined by industry, unions, business, market bodies and civil society in Parramatta for an Energy and Adaptation Roundtable.

Getting Australia’s energy transformation right isn’t just critical to unlocking productivity, it will make our economy more resilient and support budget sustainability.

Participants acknowledged the enormous amount of work to date that has gone into transforming Australia’s energy system – thanks to the combined efforts of governments, industry, communities, investors and workers.

These efforts have laid strong foundations for a better, fairer energy system that supports economic growth, mitigates climate change and delivers more opportunities for Australians now and into the future.

And now as Australia’s energy transformation gathers pace, making sure we are gearing it to power the growth sectors of the future, including allowing Australia to be a home to emerging AI and technology industries is critical.

Themes emerging from today’s discussions that point to how to fully capitalise on the opportunities before us are: creating the conditions for new investment, removing hurdles to the delivery of investment, improving energy performance and incentives, and harnessing the enormous benefits to come from technology and innovation.

Building on the discussion at the Treasurer’s Investor Roundtable on 6 August, participants spoke about the energy system’s role supporting the underlying infrastructure for AI. This included how to best integrate increasing economic demands for faster data centre development alongside opportunities for data centres to deploy and promote renewables.

The room was clear that the Government continuing to provide policy certainty, including through ambitious but achievable targets will underpin investment and further unlock the opportunities of the transition.

Ripping up targets and derailing the transition won’t see Australia thrive – policy uncertainty would only weaken our position in an increasingly uncertain world.

The adaptation roundtable further underscored the importance of driving ambitious and achievable climate action.

Participants discussed three connected themes relating to climate risk and adaptation: barriers and enablers to effectively manage risks associated with our changing climate, incentivising private investment in climate adaptation, and boosting productivity through climate adaptation.

We thank participants for their time, participation and invaluable support to climate change action and the energy transformation. 
We look forward to sharing the insights of these discussions with the Treasurer ahead of his growth and productivity roundtable.