Shining the spotlight on Australia’s cleantech opportunities

In the global race to zero emissions, Australia stands at a pivotal moment for our economy and our zero-emission future. Investment and accelerated support for Australian-grown clean technology can deliver future economic prosperity and grow Australia’s role as a leader in delivering the solutions required for a zero carbon future. As the US Inflation Reduction Act and other renewable industry stimulus are being offered by developed nations around the world, what are our opportunities and how do we capture them?

This question was central to our Australian Cleantech Spotlight event, held at the Parliament House in Canberra on 17 November 2023. Together with key representatives from government, industry and our partners from the climate movement, we launched our latest research on the opportunities for Australia in the battery supply chain and our Cleantech Showcase. The Cleantech Showcase is a nation-wide showcase of real-world technologies, and the organisations making them, that provides a clear evidence base for aligning government policies to enable investment to flow to this space.

We were honoured to have the event hosted at Parliament House by the co-chairs of Parliamentary Friends of Clean Investment, Senators Karen Grogan, Andrew Bragg and David Pocock, who spoke about cross-party efforts to build on the opportunities presented by clean energy investment. 

Our second panel of speakers were from the battery industry, experts in their field and many of them have been featured in our research. They showcased the critical technologies that will lead the race to zero emissions and shared their insights on the exciting developments and opportunities in the battery industry in Australia. 

We had the pleasure of hearing from:

• Brian Craighead, CEO, Energy Renaissance
• Justin Bain, CEO, 3ME Technologies
• Prof. Thomas Nann, CEO, Allegro
• Tim Harris, CEO, Redflow
• Dominic Spooner, CEO, Vaulta
• Katharine Hole, CEO, Association for the Battery Recycling Industry

They discussed where the biggest opportunities are for investors and government, and how we can all help grow Australian cleantech supply chains - to prosper in the global race to decarbonise.

Looking back to 2015, we set a vision for Australia to become a renewable energy superpower when we published the groundbreaking report Renewable Energy Superpower. Through our research, we have shown the scale of the opportunity, the barriers and technical requirements and the journey of industry to meet the challenge of the zero-emission future. Through the Cleantech Showcase and our supply chain research, we demonstrate the big opportunities for Australian-manufactured cleantech in our future economy and how to ensure thriving, sustainable communities now and in the coming decades. (Read our supply chain briefing papers on Commercial Electric Vehicles and Batteries).

With the invigorating discussions that left so many great takeaways, and the forging of connections between the public and private sectors, the Australian Cleantech Spotlight was a wonderful picture of multi-partisan and industry support for the growth of cleantech manufacturing in Australia. It was a valuable platform that elevated Australia’s opportunity to both accelerate emission reductions and grow a clean economy that supports a prosperous and zero-emissions Australia.