High Commissioner: NZIIA Environmental Diplomacy Symposium 12 March 2025

NZIIA Environmental Diplomacy Symposium
12 March 2025, Zealandia, Wellington

 

Keynote Address by H E Ms Harinder Sidhu AM,
Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand

 

“Australia’s Green Economic Transition”

 

 

Introduction

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e rau rangatira mā 

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

 

The Rt Hon Sir Anand Satyanand, Former Governor-General and Patron of NZIIA.

Friends, Excellencies and Distinguished Guests

 

I’m delighted to be here today to talk about a topic very close to my heart – climate policy. And, in particular, the efforts by Australia to drive forward real action on climate change.

 

You may have noticed my biography says that I’ve devoted several years of my career to climate policy. I’m aware this makes me somewhat unusual in diplomatic circles.

 

But I’ve very much enjoyed my time working on climate change. Because, as far as public policy challenges go, it’s about as wicked a problem as you can get – one that requires a truly multidisciplinary solution.

 

If we are serious about combatting climate change, we have to bring several disciplines together – science, economics, politics, law, business, security and social inclusion to name a few.

 

As a diplomat, who trained as a lawyer and economist, and who has since had a long career working across foreign, economic, security and domestic policy – you can understand the appeal.

 

Over my career, I have found that my climate policy experience has become a major diplomatic asset.

 

Particularly as the impacts of climate change have become more acute – especially here, in the Pacific – the ability to understand what goes into making climate policy has become more and more valuable as a subject for foreign policy.

 

The reason for this is simple: when it comes to the climate, everything is connected.  Emissions do not respect national boundaries, so whatever other countries do to raise or reduce emissions will affect you; and what you do at home matters for the planet.

 

To understand how Australia has gone about managing this balance, I’m going to talk about two aspects of our climate policy development over the past decade or two.

 

First, I want to explain how Australia is tackling the economic challenge of climate change by embracing a wholesale transition of our economy. This is a large topic, so I’ll only skim the surface, but I’ll try to give you an idea of the scale and speed we are moving at across the ditch.    

 

And second, I want to tell the story of how we have come to integrate domestic and international climate policy in Australia.  An integration that, I would argue, has made us more effective and trusted on the issue. I’ll talk to this from my experience as one of the senior executives who helped set up Australia’s first dedicated Department of Climate Change in the late 2000s.

 

And I’m going to attempt to cover all of that, in a little bit of detail, in just 20 minutes!

 

So, let’s dive in.

 

 

 

Australia’s Big Green Economic Transition

Let’s start with some facts. 

 

Australia is both a large emitter of greenhouse gases – the 14^th largest in the world – and, at the same time, highly vulnerable to climate impacts.

 

Because of our own lived experience, we recognise the urgency of the climate crisis.  We accept that we need to play our part in meeting this global challenge.  That’s why we are taking real, concrete action to transition our economy at pace.

 

Believe me when I tell you that this is not just rhetoric.

 

Across Australia – in every household, every business, every school, every workplace – an economy-wide transition is underway.

 

Australia has not just committed, but we have legislated, ambitious emissions reduction targets. We will cut emissions by 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

 

We are on track.  As at November 2024, emissions have fallen by 28.2 per cent below 2005 levels.

 

Energy production is the largest contributor to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions [32.6% - CSIRO]. So it’s only natural that this is where we are focusing our efforts.

 

We’re transforming Australia’s electricity supply to harness the power of renewables, with an ambition to see the portion of renewable energy in our grid reach 82 per cent by 2030. 

 

Yes, you heard me, 82 per cent – a number that is very close to the proportion of renewables in New Zealand’s electricity grid [87 per cent].

 

This is a big deal. I’m sure I don’t need to tell anybody in this room the importance that fossil fuels have traditionally had in the Australian economy. 

 

Less than twenty years ago, some 80 per cent of Australia’s electricity came from coal or fossil-fuel powered generation.

 

Naturally, a transition as ambitious as this will not happen overnight.

 

But we’re taking it seriously. Decarbonising our economy will be challenging, but we are absolutely committed to achieving it.

 

The pace here has been staggering – the total capacity of Australia’s wind and solar assets is already roughly 40 per cent greater than it was just three years ago.

 

And last year, the number of installed rooftop solar systems across the country reached 4 million. That’s almost 25 Gigawatts of capacity, more than Australia’s entire current fleet of coal-fired generators.

 

And while total renewable electricity generation now stands at around 40 per cent, we have seen occasions over the past couple of years renewables have supplied more than 70 per cent of electricity to the grid.

 

On industrial emissions, we’ve made reforms to what’s called our ‘Safeguards Mechanism’ – which requires our biggest emitters to reduce net emissions by 4.9 per cent a year.

 

This will eliminate over 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, equivalent to taking two-thirds of Australia’s cars off our roads.

 

Beyond our 2030 target, we are also preparing our economy for the transition to net zero by 2050.

 

We’ve shifted the way we think about the net zero transition. Rather than a burden to shoulder, we now view it as an economic opportunity we must position ourselves to seize.

 

To do this, the Australian Government has developed a plan to invest $22.7 billion over the next decade, to support programs which will maximise the economic and industrial benefits of the move to net zero.

 

We are focusing our investments in sectors where Australia has a comparative advantage and those that contribute to decarbonisation or supply chain resilience.

 

These include renewable hydrogen production, green metals, critical minerals processing and clean energy technology, including to develop battery and solar panel industries.

 

Not only is this good climate policy, it will also build our energy and economic resilience in changing global and strategic landscape.

 

This is all about doing our part. We know that all countries must be ambitious and move at speed if we want to tackle the climate crisis.

 

Climate Change and Foreign Policy

 

Doing our bit at home has helped us demonstrate our seriousness about climate change beyond our shores.

 

On the foreign policy front we’re listening to our partners in the Pacific when they tell us that climate change is their greatest security challenge.

 

Australia is working to ensure a regional balance that is safe, prosperous and stable for all – and its essential that climate change be part of this effort.

 

That’s why we’re deploying high quality climate finance across the region to support the priorities of our partners.

 

We expect to deliver $3 billion towards global climate financing efforts over 2020-2025.

 

And our foundational contribution of $100 million to the Pacific Resilience Facility shows we are backing Pacific leadership on climate adaptation.

 

Integrating the international and the domestic

The Pacific is an important, but only one example.

 

There is an inherent connection between what you do at home and your international climate policy.

 

And that is where, from my perspective, a small point of difference has been a game changer for Australia.

 

When we set up our inaugural Department of Climate Change in 2008 – a department that I was one of the original senior executive leaders of – we made a deliberate decision.

 

Rather than leave the responsibility for international climate policy and negotiations with our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, we chose to bring these international specialists across to the new Department, to work side by side with our domestic and technical policy specialists.

 

In short, to integrate our domestic and international policies from their inception.

 

It was an idea we saw working incredibly well in the United Kingdom, which had also at that time just set up its own Ministry of Climate Change.

 

This might sound like the sort of structural technicality that only somebody who has been a public servant for nearly forty years could get excited about.

 

But believe me when I tell you, it made the world of difference.

 

It allowed all parts of our system to work together in a mutually reinforcing way.

 

This has meant that we’ve been represented at the UNFCCC negotiating table not just by our diplomats, but by climate change experts and economists from the same agency working towards the same goals – tying together the many strands in climate policy.

 

This means we design our domestic policies with an eye to what we need to commit to internationally.  This awareness of international expectation has driven us to be more ambitious domestically. 

 

On the flip side, our diplomats and negotiators are deeply connected to the practicalities and technicalities of climate policymaking. 

 

They are the same people who have to take responsibility for delivery on the things they agree to internationally.  It’s not something they can then pass on to someone else to do.

 

The bottom line is, we don’t make international commitments that we know we can’t deliver.  And it’s why we are now on track to deliver on our ambitious commitments at home and internationally for 2030.

 

This has been a recipe for building credibility and integrity in our climate policy both at home and abroad.

 

Conclusion

So where does this leave us, as we look ahead to the future trajectory of Australia’s climate policy?

 

Well, of course the transition underway in Australia leaves us with a strong foundation on which to build.

 

But what’s obvious is that no country can solve climate change – or even come close – alone. We need partners.

 

And that’s why, for Australia, climate is now a critical component of all our major international relationships.

 

This includes with New Zealand.

 

In 2023 we established an annual 2+2 dialogue with Climate and Finance ministers coming together on both sides of the Tasman.

 

This dialogue – which seeks to closely integrate our economic and climate policy – is the first of the kind in the world.

 

And it already has a number of runs on the board. Through the dialogue, we’ve established a net zero working group to support decarbonising public services and sustainable procurement.

 

We’ve pooled our efforts to stimulate and secure supply of electric and zero emissions vehicles.

 

And we’re coordinating our support for the Pacific, directed towards regional priorities, including climate adaptation and the amplification of Pacific voices in international climate and energy discussions.

 

Speaking of amplifying Pacific voices, Australia of course remains strongly committed to our bid to host COP31 in partnership with the Pacific.

 

We want to deliver a COP with our Pacific partners that brings profile to the climate challenges in our region, accelerates global climate action and raises the voices of First Nations People.

 

The bid has been warmly supported by Pacific Leaders, and we are continuing discussions with the hope of coming to a resolution soon.

 

The bottom line is this:  Australia is not sitting still in the race to tackle the climate crisis.

 

It’s a race we want to win – not just because its good for the climate.

 

But because we know that, if we get it right, it will be good for the future of our economy, for our security, and for our region.

 

Our planet depends on it.

 

Thank you for your attention. I look forward to our discussion.