The clock is ticking. It’s been almost a decade since the United Nations’ (UN) Paris Agreement was adopted, essentially committing the global community to net zero emissions by 2050. In the last 10 years, discussion, debate and deliberations about climate change, reducing carbon emissions and renewable energy have moved from the specialised to the mainstream. In the last year, the rhetoric about net zero has further intensified. The Paris Agreement’s first interim targets are looming, in 2030 to be exact, and for Australia that’s seeing emissions 43% below 2005 levels.
The UN has described the transition to net zero as “one of the greatest challenges humankind has faced”, and in delivering the Federal Budget in May, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said of the transition, “Australia’s regions can drive it.” This transformation of economies, of industry and of society is unlike anything we have seen before, and regional Australia is at the forefront. That’s both incredibly exciting and overwhelmingly daunting.
The opportunities and challenges the transition will bring will be a key focus at the Regional Australia Institute’s (RAI) Regions Rising National Summit in just two weeks’ time. Ahead of that though, I want to make it clear that while regional Australia is the ‘new frontier’ for this evolution, we as a country cannot simply aim to reach net zero at any cost. Rather it must be done in a way that provides local opportunities, in an efficient manner and prioritises an equity of outcomes for all. It must be a just transition. And that is why, as we as a nation move towards trying to meet those emission targets, social licence will be key.
Australian not-for-profit, The Ethics Centre, summarises this concept as having three components: legitimacy, credibility and trust. Legitimacy is the extent to which individuals or organisations play by the rules. Credibility relates to the capacity to provide true and clear information to the community and fulfil commitments. Trust involves the willingness of these individuals or organisations to be vulnerable to the actions of others – and takes time and effort to cultivate.
If regional Australia will drive net zero, then the actors behind the steering wheel – governments, business, industry and community – need to be legitimate, credible and trustworthy. This is not the time for copy-and-paste ESG policies or logo-adorned footy jumpers. This is the time for genuine, place-based, bottom-up collaboration to build a better world, both environmentally and socially, in the years to come. If achieved, net zero will deliver an unprecedented global legacy and it is vital that legacy mentality is tightly bound to all aspects of the transition. For legacy is what the regions need right now.
Regional Australia is in a situation of juxtaposition at the moment. The renaissance of living regionally continues and our latest Regional Movers Index shows capital to regional migration remains 20% above the pre-pandemic average – but at the same time there remains thousands and thousands of job vacancies across regional Australia. There are a great many issues that currently hold the regions back – a lack of housing, lower school attainment rates than in metropolitan areas, fewer transportation services too – which is why, in part, the RAI helped create the Regionalisation Ambition. This decadal plan sets up a framework to shift the dial on 20 specific measures which would increase the prosperity and wellbeing of regional Australia. They’re big, wicked issues and much like the transition, will require a united team of collaborators to address them. We need to harness the opportunity net zero can provide to the regions, to deliver the lasting legacy of infrastructure, workers and services the regions need. We need to use this evolution to change regional Australia for the better.
I know the transition can be an emotive topic in regional Australia. Whilst many are eager and enthusiastic for the change to come, for others the start of this transformation hasn’t been easy. The social licence, which will be so crucial to the success of the transition, has perhaps not been executed as effectively as it could have been. We need to learn from those experiences though, to ensure the complaints of today become the teaching tools of tomorrow. Net zero will transform regional Australia, but with the right leadership, unity and drive, that transformation can be harnessed so that it delivers meaningful change, improving the lives of those who live there.
The enormity of what regional Australia can potentially gain from the transition and how we should go about implementing that is a matter I will talk more about at the National Summit. If you’re ready to join forces on transformations, legacy projects and social licence, I implore you to join me there.
The clock is ticking. Let’s make this time count.
Liz Ritchie, RAI CEO.