Sustainability blog: The Hon Dr John Hewson AM

17 February 2021

In the lead up to BCCM’s 2021 Leaders’ Summit, our guest speakers are sharing their perspectives on ESG as it pertains to CMEs in Australia.

The costs of climate events are increasing alarmingly, as evidenced for Australia by the Climate Council Report on the looming annual $100 billion cost of natural disasters for which we are unprepared.

In January, scientists Professor Will Steffen, Professor Lesley Hughes and Associate Professor Malte Meinshausen, and I, delivered the first comprehensive analysis of Australia’s remaining emissions budget since the Climate Change Authority (CCA) prepared its reports on targets in 2014. The report finds that the current government has spent a significant amount of Australia’s remaining emissions budget and that substantially more ambitious Australian targets will be needed to comply with the Paris Agreement.

Read: The verdict on Australia’s emissions targets: catastrophic