Forewords by CEO and Heidi Lee of BZE

IN MY VIEW

ARE YOU LOOKING for a new solar installer sparky? I hear it is an almost impossible task…

At the same time the entire economy is going to be transformed over the next decade, with the electrification of everything, massive uptake of EVs, and renewable hydrogen becoming mainstream.

That is the backdrop to the Jobs and Skills Summit I attended recently in Canberra.

John Grimes, Chief Executive Smart Energy Council

A generation of successive governments have pulled support out of skills and training, and intentionally made long-term skilled migration a difficult process, which has left Australia in a skills and jobs mess.

We have left women and people with disabilities behind. We have not focused on skills in our regions. We have made skilled migration so onerous people simply give up.

That has to change, and fast. If the smart energy industry is going to capitalise on our access to the world’s cheapest and cleanest electricity, to attract the world’s heavy industry to set up shop here, and to build smart energy IT systems we can sell to the world, we need a plan for urgent action.

The skills required touch almost every part of the economy. From boiler makers to IT engineers and everything in between.

Heidi Lee is chief executive of Beyond Zero Emissions

The global transition to zero emissions is

Australia’s opportunity to shine: We can act now to capture the prosperity that a clean economy can provide us, in our cities and our regional industrial heartlands. Beyond Zero Emissions is unique among thinktanks, with a small team of staff we coordinate hundreds of expert volunteers to co-create climate solutions. We are currently obsessed with the immense potential of regional Australia to thrive in the transition and we’re partnering with locals in communities to make this real.

High quality sustainable jobs, green investment and productive capability in places like the Hunter Valley and Central Queensland will benefit people who live there, and will benefit our city and suburb dwellers with cheaper power and Australian-made products.

Heavy industry can be heroes in the

transition: Australia’s heavy industries, its smelters and refineries, are on a decarbonisation journey. With these major energy users already investing in massive amounts of locally generated renewable energy, the business case for decarbonising adjacent facilities is stronger. With a guarantee of affordable green power, green investment will flow to build out manufacturing precincts, both future-proofing existing industries and accelerating entrepreneurial new businesses that make the materials and equipment needed for a zero-emissions and circular economy.

We need lots of new materials and equipment

to transition to zero emissions: We need to deploy hundreds of hydrogen electrolysers, thousands of all-electric heavy vehicles, and millions of heat pumps to replace fossil fuels across Australia. Importantly, with good planning and policy certainty, we can set up local industries to meet domestic demand and capture growing global markets.

Regional and national opportunities are

immense: Locally we have calculated more than 34,000 new green jobs in the Hunter region and 11,000 new jobs in Gladstone. Nationally, we could accelerate the transition with a 5-year plan for 1.8m green jobs across

I was pleased with the goodwill brought to the Summit and the genuine determination by the federal government to do more. But whatever we do needs to be done urgently. We must do what we can immediately, and then focus on the things that will deliver in the future as they wash through the system.

In the short term, we have partnered with Electrical Trades Union, Master Electricians and others to call for Powering Australia Skills Clusters to be set up across the country as well as a national Apprentice Support Network.

I know our sector has been heard in Canberra as well as by the state Premiers and Chief Ministers. It is a good start, but you can be assured that the Smart Energy Council is not going to let this go, and will advocate strongly for our sector to get the skilled workers we need to succeed.

all sectors. And Australian renewables can provide us with exports of over $333bn/year, more than three times the value of our current fossil exports.

The upside well justifies the investment in

planning and coordination: The support of local communities is fundamental to getting new and upgraded green infrastructure developed and online. We are thrilled by the support of hundreds of people and our success is your success. www.bze.org.au/research

My thanks to all SEC subscribers who have contributed large and small to Beyond Zero Emissions over the past decade. We wouldn’t be where we are without you, and we won’t succeed unless we all continue to pull together.