Better Futures Forum urges export focus to accelerate renewable energy investment
Australia could create 395,000 new jobs and generate $89 billion in new trade by 2040 through investment in renewable energy exports.
Leaders of the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Business Council of Australia and WWF-Australia, meeting at the Better Futures Forum today welcomed the Australian government’s continued commitment to a renewable export future for Australia.
Speaking at the Forum’s breakfast event, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen reaffirmed the Australian government’s ambition to ensuring we become a renewable export powerhouse.
“The dividends for our country could be enormous. Now we ‘ve got to get on with it. Build the renewables, build the transmission, build the storage - and then build it more so we can export it to the world.”
The ‘Sunshot: Australia’s Opportunity to Create 395,000 Clean Export Jobs’ report, released by the Better Future Forum stakeholders last October, outlined a future in which:
- renewable hydrogen and ammonia will provide 33,000 direct and indirect jobs, generating some $28.9 billion in revenue.
- critical minerals will provide 110,000 direct and indirect jobs, generating $38.4 billion in revenue.
- batteries made in Australia will generate $27.6 billion and lead to 45,000 direct and indirect jobs, and
- education and training, engineering and ICT and consulting services would account for 96,000 jobs combined, and more than $17 billion in revenue.
The Sunshot report outlines a Renewable Export Strategy that includes: a $5 billion fund for workers and regions delivered by a new energy transition authority to manage the transition in regional economies and workers whose livelihoods depend on carbon-intensive industries; support for low-carbon materials in major infrastructure projects; co-investment in new industries and coordinated investment in renewable energy powered industrial precincts.
“On the back of the Jobs and Skills Summit, Australia has an opportunity to reset and set ourselves up to build the industries of the future as we decarbonise. Acting now puts us in the box seat to take advantage of our world class skills, abundant resources and proximity to markets to secure existing jobs and create new ones” says Jennifer Westacott, Chief Executive of Business Council of Australia.
“We can and should reach net zero by harnessing Australia’s abundant natural resources to boost exports, drive investment in new technology and deliver a stronger economy with new and better jobs”, says Ms Westacott.
“The Sunshot plan is an exciting and shared blueprint for creating good and well-paid jobs in renewable energy export industries, especially in the regions that have powered our country for so long,” says Michele O’Neil, President of ACTU.
“Those workers and communities most affected by our energy transition need the support, the retraining and opportunity to land those jobs. That’s exactly why we are all united on the need for a national energy transition authority to deliver this,” says Ms O’Neil.
The participants in the panel discussion that followed Minister Bowen’s speech were:
- Moderator: Emma Herd, Partner EY
- Michele O'Neil, President at ACTU
- Karrina Nolan, Executive Director at Original Power & a key architect of the First Nations Clean Energy Network
- Kelly O’Shanassy, CEO at ACF
- Dermot O’Gorman, CEO at WWF-Australia
- Clark Butler, Director at Zero Industrials
