Industry Climate Change Conference

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (14:23): My question is to the Deputy Premier. Can the Deputy Premier update the house on the recent Industry Climate Change Conference?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:23): I am very pleased to update the chamber about the second Industry Climate Change Conference. Some 700 or 800 people came. The first one was two years ago. There was a survey that went out afterwards, with the very highly competent and effective Martin Haese at the helm. He suggested that we do this. He said that we must get out and ask people, 'Do you want this again, or is this a one-off?' There was very clear feedback that we should do it again. We decided to do it every other year and, again, another 700 or 800 people showed up for two days to attend the conference.

It was a very successful conference in the sense that not only were there many people there but they came from a wide range of organisations. Business was there, agribusiness was there, as well as local government, scientists and people who were concerned about ways in which we can shift our economy as fast as possible to recognise the demands of the emerging economy in the world, which is one that rewards being decarbonised. Also, of course, running alongside that, is the need for ESG credentials to demonstrate that you are not doing harm to nature.

Small businesses in particular, which is the vast majority—small to medium business is about 98 per cent of South Australian business—naturally understand and can see that climate change is real and can see that it is having an impact, but find it slightly overwhelming to appreciate the ways in which they can respond and what does it mean for them. That was the gap that Martin Haese saw was able to be filled in part by having this biannual conference, to allow people to come along and hear it to get ideas.

We had an excellent presentation on green finance, for example. Guy Debelle, who is associated with Funds SA, the Deputy Chair of Funds SA, gave a very good presentation about the way in which green finance is shifting fast and the way in which you can get investment to make the changes required. There were also some slightly terrifying—but terrifying because it's real—presentations from scientists who were pointing out the extent to which climate change is gathering pace.

The year 2023 was the hottest on record by far, not only on record but through ice core samples able to determine probably for tens if not hundreds of thousands of years in the different months. The year 2023 was eclipsed by 2024 globally, so we have now had a prolonged period of the global temperature average being 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial times; 1.5 being, of course, the level that the Paris Accord was attempting to hold us back to as a decadal average.

The year 2025 is not quite tracking as badly as 2023 and 2024, so it is likely to be the third hottest year on record. So the three hottest years on record are likely to be the three years we have just gone through. No-one needs to be told that in South Australia experiencing the drought right now, no-one needs to be told that in South Australia watching the impact of Karenia mikimotoi as the algal bloom off our coast, almost certainly a direct result of the marine heatwave we have been experiencing.

We cannot, however, allow ourselves to be paralysed by this information. We have to acknowledge it, we have to understand its implications, and then we have to act. Helping our businesses decarbonise and respond to the risks that are represented by climate change is one constructive and proactive way that we can respond. I would like to pay tribute to all of those who organised it, all of those who participated, including Tim Jarvis, former South Australian of the Year from a year ago, who spoke very, very well at the dinner but in particular, of course, to Martin Haese who is an absolute gem of South Australia.