As Climateworks Centre enters its 15th year of operations, we are proud to share the past year’s annual impact report, showing how we are building on the momentum and successes of our systems approach to climate mitigation.
The world has come a long way in terms of understanding both climate risks – and the reality of climate solutions.
We’ve moved beyond debating ‘if’ we should achieve net zero.
The focus now is on how, how fast, and how to do it well.
Our teams working on these questions, and many more, are seeing promising signs of the net zero future we are all aiming for, and building now.
Climateworks’ strategic approach focuses on four transformations that we believe are needed this decade to achieve net zero emissions in line with limiting global warming to 1.5ºC.
Transformations to secure net zero
- Governance for 1.5ºCÂ
National targets and policies as well as corporate and financial sector regulations align with commitments to the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. - Near zero emissions energy supply
Countries develop renewable energy resources at scale to electrify the economy and phase out fossil fuels - Efficient demand and production for net zero
Energy efficiency solutions optimise and reduce energy use. Supply chains decarbonise as demand for low-carbon products shifts production from emissions-intensive processes to clean alternatives. - Nature as a climate solution
Countries protect and grow resilient carbon sinks to optimise nature-based solutions while enhancing our natural environment.
Our 2023 impact report lays out each critical transformation and the work we’ve done to make them a reality.Â
Transformation 1: Governance for 1.5°C
- We released our latest decarbonisation scenarios, which are now being used by the Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, in consultation with government sectoral plans and as a standard for credible climate action for Australian companies, investors and governments.
- Our SEAFOAM project mapped blue-carbon ecosystems and resources in Indonesia, identifying ways for the country to raise ambition for its upcoming NDC and shrink the gap between emissions reductions promised and emissions reductions achieved.
- We guided companies on best practices for credible transition plans through the Climate Leaders Coalition, a group of Australian companies accelerating their transition to net zero.
Transformation 2: Near zero emissions energy supply
- Our framework describing how Just Energy Transition Partnerships can be implemented successfully has been included on the Asian Development Bank’s Southeast Asia Development Solutions platform.
- Australia–Indonesia Energy Transition Dialogues, co-convened by Climateworks, have become a highly sought-after advising body, which supported Indonesia’s ASEAN chairmanship and Australian–Indonesian collaboration on climate and energy.
Transformations 2 and 3
- The Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative published a final decarbonisation report, which led to a collective company statement and informed legislated policy and billions of dollars of federal budget funding.
- Climateworks CEO Anna Skarbek was appointed to the Net Zero Economy Agency Advisory Board to advise on the creation of the soon-to-be legislated Net Zero Authority.
- Our recommendations on economic and trade cooperation were cited in Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, and we co-established the Australia-Vietnam Green Economy Program to further demonstrate how the strategy can be implemented in the region.
Transformation 3: Efficient demand and production for net zero
- Our Renovation Pathways project findings were cited by CEFC in relation to the $1.3 billion Household Energy Upgrades Fund and the program’s national report was launched by the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy in Parliament House.
- Australia’s $2 billion Hydrogen Headstart program, which aims to ‘scale up development of Australia’s renewable hydrogen industry’, cites Climateworks’ modelling results on the scale of hydrogen needed.
Transformation 4: Nature as a climate solution
- Our Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue, a new resource with the potential to put an entire economy on the same page when it comes to properly valuing and protecting nature, has received local and international recognition.
