Convening for Net Zero: Aligning Innovation, Industry, and Society

Getting to net zero is critical, and Australia can get there in a way that builds prosperity and inclusivity, writes Dr Michael Battaglia.

JFK set the bold goal, the almost archetypal goal for missions that stated.

‘ .. this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth..’¹

But just as important is what follows:

“…because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills..”². 

This ability to organise, and beyond that to coordinate and convene, sits at the heart of mission-oriented innovation practice³.

Like many societal problems, reaching net zero in a prosperous and equitable way is complex and requires equally complex solutions.⁴ [MB1] These kinds of challenges require exploration and negotiation to agree on pathways, involving all levels of government from federal to local.

Tackling these challenges means collaboration must extend beyond government efforts, engaging industry sectors and society. Reaching net zero emissions hinges on securing social agreement, engaging industry, securing investment, finance mobilisation, market formation and standards setting, enabling policy and regulation, and sometimes supply chain reconfiguration.

Transitioning industry

At the Towards Net Zero Forum in June 2024⁵, Robert Evan’s from BlueScope spoke about the challenges of transitioning steel making to low emissions methods and emphasised that industry and government must ensure objectives are aligned.

To shift value chains towards low emissions, we need to synchronise technology, raw material supply, energy, markets, policy support.  We need to broker and convene conversations across these areas if we are to achieve effective and rapid change.

We see the same situation in the development of a low emissions liquid fuel industry for Australia, in which both supply and demand need to be concurrently incentivised. Otherwise, the industry won’t scale to the size needed, and won’t attain the fuel characteristics and emissions reduction needed to support national goals.

On the demand side we need:

• commitments to consumption
• refinery capacity
•  biofuel emissions reduction standards

On the supply side we need:

• feedstock supply
• farm land commitment
• social acceptance of land use change

Regional Transformation

The net zero transition will result in major changes to our industrial regions and will see significant infrastructure builds in regional Australia.  This will impact the things people value – from housing availability, quality of jobs, rural landscape amenity, transport infrastructure and biodiversity.

 Industries that have a major presence in regional Australia, such as agriculture or iron ore processing will be impacted.  Communities must be brought along for the journey. Where communities are not included in planning, opposition arises, and a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Australia’s regions to benefit from economic injection could be missed.⁶

Bringing together community and industry to explore and agree on a common future is a critical part of ensuring a just and equitable transition.  Science and technology can play an important role in identifying the different pathways the transition might follow and how these might affect a full set of outcomes. 

The TNZ team is supporting whole of economy modelling to understand how industry and energy pathway choices will impact national prosperity and employment⁷. Including building tools to help explore the  interaction between vegetation based mitigation activities and biodiversity outcomes⁸.

Being able to have discussions about how we align our actions and decisions in the transition to net zero is crucial for a successful and inclusive future.

Achieving net zero is critical, but how we reach that goal is an opportunity to create a better, more inclusive and prosperous future.

References:

1.JFK Address to Joint Session of Congress May 25, 1961

2.JKF Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort

3. Larrue, P. (2021), “The design and implementation of mission-oriented innovation policies: A new systemic policy approach to address societal challenges”, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers, No. 100, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3f6c76a4-en.

4. Nelson, R.R. 1977 The Moon and the Ghetto, An Essay on Public Policy Analysis, 164pp, W.W. Norton &Company; ISBN-13 : ‎978-0393091731

5. https://research.csiro.au/tnz/towards-net-zero-forum/

6. https://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/libraryviewer?ResourceID=115

7. https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2023/december/pathways-net-zero-report

8. https://www.csiro.au/en/showcase/csiro-natureiq