More than two-thirds of the world’s natural disasters occurred in the Indo-Pacific, says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, making investments in clean energy in the region a must if the world wants to reach zero net by 2050.
He says the government has a mandate to enshrine in law a 43 per cent reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 and after “decades of inertia”, Australians had chosen action.
“Few regions have more at stake or more to gain to meet this challenge collectively than ours. Of course, we are the fastest growing region in the world in human history,” Albanese told the Sydney Energy Forum.
It was home to more than half of the planet’s population, nearly two-thirds of the world economy and more than 60% of the world’s energy supply.
Albanese said 70 percent of the world’s natural disasters occur in the region, and by 2019, more than 90 million people in the Indo-Pacific were affected by climate-related disasters.
“Last week, we had what we used to call, and some people still call it, an event of one every 1000 years; then they called it an event of one every 100 years, guess what? Now it’s an annual event.
“What we have experienced here in Greater Sydney (is) having a devastating impact, literally on lives, but on livelihoods, as houses have disappeared underwater and a tragedy has occurred.”
Nearly 80 percent of clean energy investment in 2021 went to the Indo-Pacific and that would only increase because the world needed more than three times as much clean energy investment to reach zero by 2050, Albanese said.
“To meet this demand will require a supply of renewable energy about six times greater than the current annual generation of solar and wind energy in our region. The numbers should not discourage us. If you excuse the pun, they should encourage us.
“If we empower companies, scientists, engineers, workers and the private sector to work together across our region, we will be able to release investments and in clean energy on a scale we have never seen before.”