July 2023.

“Anthony Albanese signs Australia up for G7-backed ‘climate club’ and promises to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.” Daily Mail.

Australia joins the Climate Club sending a powerful message to the international community that we are on the path to being a Superpower in the post-carbon future.

The club is an initiative of German Chancellor Olav Scholz designed to encourage governments to put a minimum price on carbon to lower the world’s emissions.

If going as planned, such policies will foster an essential shift in the global economy’s behaviour, demonstrating that growing economically alongside reaching net-zero by 2050 is viable.

Australia has immense potential to lead such transformation due to its abundant renewable energy sources and for being a developed nation, leading to the responsibility of leading by example in the global effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

As a 1.5-degrees business, ZEN is committed to doing everything necessary to accelerate the transformation to clean energy. Seeing the government making this significant move sends a powerful message to the international community, inspiring others to follow suit and creating momentum for change. As Anthony Garnaut, ZEN CEO, mentioned in his speech at the Sustainability Leaders Summit this year, “Voluntary action is great, and those who take voluntary action early often stand to benefit from being an early mover, but voluntary action doesn’t get us all the way to where we need to go.”

Key factors of joining the Climate Club 

• Economic Opportunities: The commitment to sustainability is now the norm and not the exception.  Australia has a unique opportunity to be a Superpower in the net-zero future, positioning itself as a global leader in renewable energy research, development, and manufacturing. This would attract investment, foster innovation, and create high-quality jobs, contributing to a thriving and sustainable economy.
• Abundant Renewable Energy resources: by generating power from the sun, wind and other renewable assets, Australia will accelerate the transformation to renewable energy and minimise reliance on fossil fuels. This is not the only step, yet the primary one to achieve net zero by 2050.
• Diplomatic Relations: the benefits of joining the cooperation in the Climate Club go beyond the environment, demonstrating that the country is actively engaging internationally to join forces and step up to make a positive change.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Photo: AAP

Article from: Daily Mail Australia

Australia is joining the ‘climate club’ backed by the Group of Seven major economies to take more action against global warming, Anthony Albanese has announced.

‘We’re very pleased to join the climate club because we are ambitious and we also see that this isn’t just the right thing to do by the environment, but this is also the right thing to do by jobs and by our economy,’ Albanese said at a news conference in Berlin after meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made the idea a key pillar of his G7 presidency last year.

‘One thing we can do is to cooperate and learn off each other, because you can’t address climate change as just a national issue. It has to be by definition, a global response,’ Albanese said.

The ‘climate club’ was formed last year – spearheaded by Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus – as a way to get countries to voluntarily set vital targets to curb climate change.

Other countries that are part of the club include; Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Indonesia, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore and Uruguay.

It is an initiative that has been opposed by emerging economies such as China – the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

In 2022, the Australian government committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent by the end of the decade.

That was almost double the previous target set as the country continues to work towards net zero emissions by 2050.