Highlights from the Climate Integrity Summit 2024
2023 has shown us a planet on the brink of collapse. Cyclones, heatwaves, catastrophic floods, fires and landslides have killed people, destroyed ecosystems and decimated communities. And
yet Australia is still yet to repair all the homes lost in the Black Summer bushfires of 2020 or the devastating Lismore floods of 2017 and 2022.
No Australian government, state or federal, is ready to deal with the compounding consequences of new disasters occurring faster than we can recover from previous ones. The new normal of overlapping climate catastrophes will undermine regional communities, economic stability and national security.
Unabated climate change is an enormous risk, but to be clear it is caused by the unabated fossil fuel subsidies and unabated gas and coal mine approvals that Australian governments remain
addicted to.
The climate isn’t just changing. It has already changed, and we are already paying a high price. How much worse things get is up to us. The United Nations Global Stocktake has confirmed
that current global efforts to reduce emissions and safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change are dangerously insufficient.
The science says there is still a window, albeit a rapidly closing one, for the world to stay within the limits of 1.5 degrees of global warming. To have any chance of achieving this, we, as a global community, must dramatically and urgently change course.
As one of my mentors, Professor Tony McMichael, once said to me, “Never forget that 1.5 degrees is a lot better than 2 degrees, and that 2 degrees is a lot better than 2.5 degrees. Never stop working for more.”
As the world’s 13th largest economy and the world’s third largest fossil fuel exporter, Australia has a special responsibility to not only demonstrate courage and leadership on climate at home
but also to use our wealth and creativity to help our trading partners, regional neighbours, and those most vulnerable to the climate crisis cope with the harm our fossil fuel exports have
done so much to cause.
The Australia Institute’s 2023 Climate Integrity Summit established the six principles that must sit at the heart of policymaking to ensure it is robust, grounded in truth and uncorrupted in all senses of the word.
Climate policy with integrity is:
- Simple: The two fundamental things that need to happen to
address climate change are to stop burning fossil fuels, and to
stop clearing land. - Science-based: The science calls for absolute reduction in emissions, not creative baselines, or reduced emissions
- Independent: Policy decisions should be made independently, not by vested interests.
- Transparent: Climate integrity means having nothing to hide, at any level.
- Government-driven: Ultimately it is the ambition of government that will determine the ambition of industry.
- Conservative: We need to be honest with ourselves about the size of the task and the scale of our willingness to act.
With these principles the opportunity exists for Australia to genuinely drive decarbonisation and investment, both here and abroad.
In the words of the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, “Let me be very clear again: the phase-out of fossil fuels is essential and inevitable. No amount of spin or scare tactics will change that.”
In the words of Selwin Hart, the Secretary General’s Special Adviser for Climate Action, “There has never been more clarity on what needs to be done, by whom, and within what timeframe to prevent a climate catastrophe.”
The solutions exist. If we want to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then we need to stop subsidising fossil fuel production and consumption (and save $11 billion per year), start taxing the fossil fuel industry heavily (for example, with a carbon tax and expanded petroleum resource rent tax), and invest far more in energy efficiency and renewables.
The Australia Institute’s 2024 Climate Integrity Summit brings together experts from academia, politics, not-for-profit and the private sector to explore the different dimensions of integrity in our climate policies, in order to help us all understand the solutions and how to implement them.
Thank you to all the speakers for taking the time to share their expertise, and to the audience for participating today and taking this message beyond this event.
— Dr Richard Denniss, Executive Director of the Australia Institute
Speeches and Panel Recordings from Climate Integrity Summit 2024
In order of appearance.
Opening Remarks | Dr Richard Denniss
“We didn’t accidentally subsidise the fossil fuel industry. It takes effort, it takes money, it takes time. It takes resolve to cause climate change. We shouldn’t look away from what Australia is in the middle of doing.”
Keynote Address | Rt Hon Enele Sopoaga PC
“Climate integrity is a critical issue for a small atoll nation like Tuvalu. But our vulnerability should not be a bargaining chip for regional security issues.”
The Climate Crisis is an Integrity Crisis | Polly Hemming
“It is not for me to say where silence about the Australian Government’s fossil fuel expansion lies on the moral spectrum, but we have a responsibility to think about it. Silence is still a choice.”
Fairer, Cleaner: The Transparent Investment Revolution | Dr Andrew Leigh MP
“We must create a financial system in which Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into shareholder value, as much as acquisitions or sales.”
The power of political leadership and evidence-based policy | Panel
- Bernie Fraser, Former Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia
- Dr Monique Ryan MP, Independent Member for Kooyong
- Dr Sophie Scamps MP, Independent Member for Mackellar
- Dr Fergus Green, Lecturer in Political Theory & Public Policy, University College London
Chaired by Rachel Withers
Navigating Australia & the campaign to end coal | His Excellency Anote Tong
“Climate change is the greatest moral challenge that humanity has ever had to face, and for those of us who have the capacity to stop it, are we going to do it?”
Removing the fossil fuel industry’s influence on politics and parliament | Senator Larissa Waters
“The major parties are so hooked on fossil fuel money that they have lost the ability to govern in the public interest, instead of the interest of their donor mates.”
“The time to restore trust and integrity in our politics is now. We can do this with political financing reforms that remove the fossil fuel industry’s corrosive influence on our democracy.”
The ecosystem of accountability: Holding government and industry to account | Panel
Why is the Government prosecuting whistleblowers? And how do we tackle the social license of the fossil fuel industry?
Our second panel discussed the communications front of the fight against fossil fuels, how to protect whistleblowers, and more in a productive discussion.
Featuring:
- Shane Rattenbury MLA, ACT Minister for Climate Change
- Regina Featherstone, Senior Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre
- Belinda Noble, Founder, CommsDeclare
Chaired by Paul Karp
Climate Change Action from the Western Torres Strait | Dr Aunty McRose Elu
“Australia’s response to climate change is one of the weakest in the world. Our leaders say they care, but they ignore the scientific evidence and do things that will ensure our communities will go under the water. We are running out of time.”
Gomeroi Ngaar, Bigan Ngaar (Gomeroi are strong when our Law is strong): Gomeroi, Native Title and Santos | Polly Cutmore
“Our people voted down the Santos offer. I knew no one could take that from us. But Santos and the Tribunal tried.”
“We still own the rights to the water, the land and the air. And it’s not for sale.”
Carbon Myth Industry | Mark Wootton
“If there’s nothing else you also take home from today, it’s carbon sequestration in the form of whatever you use to sequest, whether it’s trees, soil, carbon, or any other concept, it’s transitional because it’s not permanent.”
Redlight for Greenwashing: ASIC’s action on greenwashing | Jennifer Balding
“Greenwashing erodes trust in the market & can lead to misallocation of capital. ASIC has identified an 840% uptick over the last 3 years in companies referencing ‘net zero’ or ‘carbon neutral’ in price sensitive ASX announcements.”
Why maintaining ambition for 1.5°C is critical | Bill Hare
“By the time you get to 3°C, we’ve got 4 or 5 billion people covered by areas under extreme risk to human health. That’s one of the reasons why 1.5°C is so important – it’s not safe, but it’s about as safe as we’re going to keep this problem.”
“1.5°C is still within reach.”
Address: Climate Envoy for the Marshall Islands | Tina Stege
“Words are only as good as the actions that follow. There’s no integrity in climate ambition without commensurate climate action.
“Having integrity means keeping our word, and that includes countries like Australia and other members of the G20 transitioning away from fossil fuels and doing so now.”
Closing Remarks | Dr Richard Denniss
“I love an election, we’re going to have one in a year. And the Australia Institute will do everything it can, to keep those issues that you’ve heard about today – fossil fuel expansion, fossil fuel subsidies, dodgy offsets, all sorts of things that frankly, most people weren’t talking about not that long ago, and a lot of groups still aren’t even talking about — we’ll do everything we can to keep them on the agenda.”
Gallery and Program
Speakers >
- His Excellency Mr Anote Tong, former President of Kiribati
- His Excellency Mr Enele S Sopoaga PC, former Prime Minister of Tuvalu
- Hon Andrew Leigh MP, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment
- Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Leader in the Senate and Senator for Queensland
- Polly Hemming, Director, Climate & Energy Program, the Australia Institute
- Dr Aunty McRose Elu, Advocate for Torres Strait communities and climate change
- Yuki Tanabe, Program Director, Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society
- Jennifer Balding, Senior Manager, Investigation and Enforcement, Australian Securities and Investments Commission
- Stephen Long, Senior Fellow and Contributing Editor, The Australia Institute
- Polly Cutmore, Gamilaraay/Wirri/Anaiwan Elder and Traditional Owner
- Mark Wootton, Farmer and Environmental Steward, Jigsaw Farms
- Dr Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, member of the UN High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities
- Tina Stege, Climate Envoy for the Marshall Islands
- Dr Richard Denniss, Executive Director, the Australia Institute
Panel #1 > We know what works: The power of political leadership and evidence-based policy
- Bernie Fraser, Former Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia
- Dr Monique Ryan MP, Independent Member for Kooyong
- Dr Sophie Scamps MP, Independent Member for Mackellar
- Dr Fergus Green, Lecturer in Political Theory & Public Policy, University College London
- Chaired by Rachel Withers
Panel #2 > The ecosystem of accountability: Holding government and industry to account
- Shane Rattenbury MLA, ACT Minister for climate change
- Regina Featherstone, Senior Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre
- Belinda Noble, Founder, CommsDeclare
- Chaired by Paul Karp
There is a window, albeit a rapidly closing one, for the world to stay within the limits of 1.5°C of global warming. To have any chance of achieving this, we, as a global community must dramatically and urgently change course.
As the world’s 13th largest economy and the world’s third largest fossil fuel exporter, Australia has a special responsibility to not only demonstrate courage and leadership on climate at home, but to use our wealth and creativity to help our trading partners, regional neighbours and those most vulnerable to the climate crisis to respond accordingly.
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