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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/02/australia-faces-postwar-style-reconstruction-to-reach-net-zero-target-says-combet>
"Australia faces a postwar-scale reconstruction costing hundreds of billions of
dollars in private and public investment to reach net zero emissions by
mid-century, according to the former Labor climate minister and incoming Future
Fund chair, Greg Combet.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Combet said the Net Zero Economy Authority
– a new government agency proposed to help manage the country’s transformation
from a dirty to a clean economy – was putting together a “pipeline” of clean
industrial projects and would be “figuring out how to help bring them to
concrete investment decisions”.
Combet was speaking as the chair of the Net Zero Economy Agency, which was set
up to design the authority and begin its work. Legislation to create the
authority was tabled in parliament last week.
A former union boss and cabinet minister in the Gillard government, Combet will
leave the agency next month to succeed Peter Costello as the chair of the
Future Fund, the country’s $212bn sovereign wealth fund.
He said the authority had been designed to play a coordinating role in helping
Australia become a renewable energy “superpower”, initially focusing on
emissions-intensive parts of the country that were home to ageing coal-fired
power plants that were near the end of their life. A key part of its job would
be ensuring workers and communities were supported through the change and
shared in the benefits, he said.
“If we do this well, Australia has the opportunity to develop numerous new
clean industrial projects, involving billions of investment dollars and
providing thousands of jobs,” he said. “Neither government funding nor private
capital alone can meet this challenge.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
