Climate Bill brought relief to private sector, says Zali Steggall

The Albanese Government’s Climate Change Bill 2022 has significant impacts for Australian business, not least providing certainty around net zero goals.

Digital Nation Australia spoke to Zali Steggall, Federal Independent Member for Warringah about the business impact of the Climate Bill to legislate net zero by 2050, and have 43 percent emissions reduction by 2030.

“There was definitely a relief from the private sector to see that long-term goal legislated,” said Stegall.

“I consulted a lot with organisations, conservation and environmental, but also the Business Council of Australia and others. Overwhelmingly, what the private sector wants is they welcome legislating net zero so there can't be any uncertainty and you can't have that long-term goal up for political debate by the various parties or The Nationals, for example.”

One key amendment that was made to the Bill was to ensure that it was considered a floor, not a ceiling, she said.

“This was essentially set up as a minimum ambition and business welcomed that because of course, business knows that if we are to achieve net zero by 2050, and if we are to minimise the economic disruption that comes from global warming and climate-induced events and the transition to renewable energy that is underway around the world, it does require ambitious action early in this decade.”

Monica Richter, senior manager Low Carbon Futures at WWF Australia and project director of Materials and Embodied Carbon Leaders Alliance told Digital Nation Australia that the Bill has significant upsides for Australian business.

“The top 200 companies they've already got decarbonisation plans. They often have a shadow price on carbon as well. They've just been waiting for this signal,” said Richter.

“We know that it's going to become probably more ambitious rather than less ambitious, and they can start to drive their decarbonisation plans.”

According to Richter, part of the legislation is connected to the Emissions Reduction Fund, and a review is set to take place of the safeguard mechanism baseline, designed to drive down emissions from the 215 companies with the highest greenhouse gas footprint.

“The safeguard mechanism is an incentive for companies to be reducing their emissions and the review process that's being enabled through the legislation will hopefully be able to drive a faster reduction in emissions and will be able to give businesses the opportunity to demonstrate directly that they can actually achieve that 43 percent reduction.”