Safe Climate Australia is a non-government organisation formed and steered by a foundation group of concerned scientists, community and business leaders with a shared understanding of the scientific and moral imperatives for emergency action to restore a safe climate. Global warming impacts threaten the productivity and health of Australia’s major ecosystems, the prosperity of vital sectors of the economy such as agriculture, forestry, tourism and infrastructure, and security of water supply to the Australian population. The observed rate of global warming and it impacts are generating deepening concern across the international climate research community, and are clearly indicating that nations and governments face the challenge of achieving far more rapid decarbonization of economic activity than previously thought necessary, and of deploying effective methods to sequester large volumes of existing damaging atmospheric carbon pollution.
Safe Climate Australia will build on a range of international innovation and transition projects such as Repower America, which target energy efficiency and renewable generation, a modern national smart grid and electrification of transport as key actions in addressing global warming, energy security and peak oil. Inspired by these projects, the purpose of Safe Climate Australia is to identify and catalyse action on the societal transformations and solutions needed to achieve a safe climate for Australia, and for the planet, at emergency speed. The structural change achieved in the next ten years is crucial.
Safe Climate Australia and the Safe Climate Transition Plan will encompass an all-sector approach including stationary energy, energy efficiency, housing and commercial buildings, transport, industrial and extraction processes, land use and agriculture. The plan will be developed with the intention of protecting and enhancing the key economic, social and environmental parameters of Australian society, including the maintenance of a high standard of living, security of energy and food supply, access to mobility and comfort and well-being for all.
Safe Climate Australia aims to be a replicable exemplar project, inspiring similar initiatives around the world, and to contribute to a growing global consensus about the scale and speed of actions needed to restore a safe climate.