The Business Roundtable on Climate Change will hold its first meeting tomorrow at Parliament House in Canberra, bringing together leaders from across the economy including the mining, transport, manufacturing, energy, retail and finance sectors.
The Roundtable will serve as a forum to discuss the future of our economy. It will focus on how we reduce carbon emissions in a way that delivers sustainable growth, maximises productivity and supports jobs across the nation.
Business recognises that we must tackle climate change in order to support long term investment and competitiveness, and the Roundtable provides a forum for open and frank discussions about how this can best be delivered.
The Roundtable will discuss a range of issues in advance of their consideration at the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. This will help ensure that Government representatives on the Committee have an accurate and current understanding of the business perspective on issues.
Ultimately, business leaders will be at the front-line of managing this necessary transformation to a low-carbon economy so it is fundamentally important that their views are taken into account.
The first meeting will provide an update on Government policy with respect to climate change, invite feedback from the business community, and include a discussion about the broader economic environment and policy reform agenda.
We don't expect all members of the Roundtable to agree on every issue. But we do anticipate that the discussions will improve our understanding of different perspectives, and help build a public consensus in support of a carbon price through a market mechanism.
The Roundtable includes companies, which employ approximately 380,000 people in Australia and generate annual revenues of $225 billion, as well as peak industry groups. The Committee is expected to meet regularly until the end of 2011.
Attachment A
Business Roundtable on Climate Change
Members of the Business Roundtable include:
- Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Peter Anderson
- National Australia Bank, Cameron Clyne
- BHP Billiton, Hubrecht (Hubie) van Dalsen
- Investor Group, Nathan Fabian
- National Farmers’ Federation, Ben Fargher
- AGL Energy, Michael Fraser
- Qantas, Alan Joyce
- Origin, Grant King
- Lend Lease, Rod Leaver
- Woolworths, Michael Luscombe
- BlueScope Steel, Paul O’Malley
- Energy Supply Association of Australia, Brad Page
- Rio Tinto, David Peever
- Shell, Ann Pickard
- Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout
- Business Council of Australia, Maria Tarrant
- Woodside, Don Voelte
- Clean Energy Council, Matthew Warren
- Toyota, Masahide (Max) Yasuda