Submission: Improving productivity via meeting adaptation and mitigation objectives

Data released by the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) – a group of 141 central banks and financial supervisors including Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank, People’s Bank of China, Reserve Bank of Australia, Reserve Bank of India and US Federal Reserve – shows Australia could see GDP cut by roughly one seventh due to the broad effects of climate change, from costs associated with extreme weather and second order effects on labour, capital, land and natural productivity.

Summary of IGCC response:

• Meeting carbon targets will incur a cost, but this must be compared against the cost of inaction – both on missed opportunities from undergoing a smooth transition to net-zero, and as climate damages compound due to a lack of adaptation activity.
• Industrial precincts need access to low-cost renewable sources of energy. Increasingly, this demand will be met by renewable energy.
• Government must be able to take on more risk at early stages of investment.
• Timeframes for decisions on planning permits for renewable energy are unacceptably long and have material impact on investment decisions.
• Building community understanding of the transition is a critical element of the net zero transition, with real benefit sharing needing to be a priority.
• Specific supports for household-level resilience must not be done in isolation of community and infrastructure-level resilience planning.

Read the full submission.