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Event: Professor Ross Garnaut: “The Superpower Transformation: Making Australia’s Zero Carbon Future”

World Wide Fund for Nature Australia and QUT Centre for Justice warmly invite you to the Brisbane book launch of Professor Ross Garnaut’s new edited book, “The Superpower Transformation: Making Australia’s Zero Carbon Future.”

In his bestselling Superpower, renowned economist Ross Garnaut showed that Australia – rich in resources for renewable energy – could become an economic superpower of the post-carbon world. Now, in The Superpower Transformation, he turns that idea into a practical plan to reshape our nation.

Professor Garnaut outlines new evidence that stronger and earlier action on climate change would be good for jobs and incomes, including in the old gas and coal communities and in rural and regional Australia. He looks at the challenges for the new federal government: how Australia can meet the objectives set at the Paris and Glasgow climate conferences – and the growing costs of not doing so. He shows that our national decisions matter greatly for the world.

With contributions from Mike Sandiford, Ligang Song, Frank Jotzo, Isabelle Grant, Susannah Powell, Dylan McConnell and Malte Meinshausen, as well as a major essay from Garnaut, The Superpower Transformation covers electricity, hydrogen, steel, exports, carbon capture in the landscape and reveals the resources that give us the most to gain economically.

Looking at recent advances towards the superpower economy, including Queensland’s new Energy and Jobs Plan, Professor Garnaut will join with a panel of experts hosted by WWF-Australia to discuss the full opportunity for Australian clean exports, and what is required to realise our potential.

Our panel:

Meaghan Scanlon MP, Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef and Minister for Science and Youth Affairs

Meaghan Scanlon is the Palasazczuk Government’s Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef and Minister for Science and Youth Affairs, a portfolio she is well suited to being the state’s youngest Cabinet Minister in history.

Prior to entering politics she worked as a solicitor and was then elected on the Gold Coast in 2017, serving as the Assistant Minister for Tourism Industry Development before being appointed as a Minister in 2020.

Her portfolio oversees the protection of the world’s largest coral reef system as well as more than 1,000 national parks and protected areas – double the size of Tasmania.

She is currently delivering major investments for the environment including the recent announcement of single-largest investment ever to acquire new national parks and protected areas, building on the 1.2 million hectares declared as protected areas since the Palaszczuk Government was formed in 2015.

As Minister for the Environment, she is driving Queensland’s Climate Action Plan, which outlines the state’s economic and environmental blueprint to drive jobs and reach net zero emissions, headlined by a $62 billion Energy and Jobs Plan and the $500 million Land Restoration Fund.

The Minister also recognises the importance of supporting young Queenslanders and giving them a voice in parliament, with the government backing young people through record investment in schools, free TAFE for under-25s and jobs through a $50 billion-plus infrastructure guarantee.

As Environment, Science and Youth Affairs Minister, she understands the role her portfolio also plays in creating good jobs and great lifestyles, with environmental initiatives protecting the reef’s $6 billion tourism economy and the $2.6 billion economic impact our national parks support.

Maia Schweizer, Director, Australia – West – Fortescue Future Industries

Maia leads Fortescue Future Industries’ work across Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Prior to joining FFI Maia was chief executive of CleanCo, a low-emissions electricity generator and retailer owned by the Queensland Government, and earlier worked at McKinsey for several years around the world. Maia trained as a geologist at Princeton, Caltech and Oxford.

Registration and drinks on arrival – 5:00pm

Book launch and expert panel – 5.30pm – 6.30pm

Book signing and networking with drinks and canapes – 6.30pm – 7.15pm

PLEASE NOTE THAT AS ALCOHOL IS BEING SERVED, THIS IS AN 18+ EVENT

Register here

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