ROAD TO RECOVERY
WITH GREAT THREATS COME CHOICES, VERY REAL CHOICES Eytan Lenko of Beyond Zero Emissions steps out the road to recovery which accelerates the transition to renewables while generating hundreds of thousands of jobs.
REBUILDING NATIONAL ECONOMIES after the blight of war, economic collapse and national disasters is far from a radical concept. Today, right now, Australia is at an unprecedented crossroad. Governments across the country, State and Federal, are investing hundreds of billions of dollars trying to keep our economy alive and Australians in work. With great threats come choices, very real choices, about how stimulus money is spent and how we might seize this threat to our national economy and the health and wellbeing of the population to future proof our economies. To rebuild our national infrastructure, to get people back into work, to upskill the workforce and put in place measures that will have real, meaningful benefits – beyond our own lifetimes. We have been here before, but perhaps never with such dual threats as tanking economies and an impending climate crisis. After the Second World War, the Snowy Hydro Scheme saw many, many thousands of the unemployed and returned military personnel
Eytan Lenko, Chair of Beyond Zero Emissions
“The time is now to retool, reskill, futureproof and rebuild our battered economy. We have the technology, we have the people and all we require now is the political will.”
employed to build a piece of nation-building infrastructure that continues to deliver benefits to Australians and the Australian economy. With great leadership, Australians can overcome huge challenges and thrive. The choice is stark. Do we want to rebuild our economy as it was? Dirty, non-competitive, based on last century’s technologies and energy intensive. Ill-equipped for the great upheavals that are already unfolding. An economy already threatened by inertia,
political and climate inaction and the impacts of climate change. Or do we want to take the opportunity to set ourselves up for the next seventy years as we did after World War Two or the United States did to overcome the Great Depression? Projects which changed the course of our national stories.
Bright minds and a brighter future From a coalition of some of the smartest minds across industry, business and academia, a bold plan is emerging for a million jobs, Australian jobs. Jobs created by modernising our infrastructure and decarbonising our economy. A structural shift that would change our economy, retool our workforce, diversify and empower industry and set this country up for a better future. Let’s bring forward spending that would happen anyway over the next 10-20 years with a focus on well-paying jobs and private capital participation.
Overview Activity
Jobs
Fast-track renewable energy & transmission
100,000 – 150,000
3 million ‘Zero Energy Bill’ buildings
320,000 – 400,000
Modernising and expanding Australian manufacturing
220,000 – 300,000
100% Renewable mining
10,000 – 30,000
Recycling - 100% recovery of materials
25,000 – 35,000
Electrified transportation
50,000 – 100,000
Land restoration and carbon farming
40,000 – 60,000
Community led initiatives
> 100,000
Beyond Zero Emissions | www.bze.org.au
30 WINTER 2020
