[LINK] The Government's Climate Change plan

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

The plan, Australia’s Long-Term Emissions Reduction Plan
A whole-of-economy Plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050

is available here:

https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/October%202021/document/australias-long-term-emissions-reduction-plan.pdf

I'm a professional engineer so I thought I'd have a look at the plan 
through the eyes of an engineer.

Here's a quick analysis

Science or sciences is mentioned 30 times

Scientist is mentioned twice (as in Chief Scientist) and scientists once.

Engineer and Engineering get 5 mentions

Technology rates 264 hits.

We are talking about innovation here, so where does the government think 
new technology is coming from? The engineering profession is responsible 
for a huge amount of the technology that needs to be invented and developed.

The plan does include "Building our workforce by investing in skills and 
training" which is detailed:

4.4.1 Building a skilled workforce

Developing a workforce with the right skills and expertise is critical 
in capturing opportunities from low emissions technologies and emerging 
markets.

Australia will need highly skilled workers to develop and deploy new 
technologies domestically and enable Australia to realise its 
comparative advantages in emerging global markets. We will need a 
workforce with general capabilities (like
communication, problem solving and digital literacy), as well as 
discipline-specific skills in fields like construction, physical 
sciences, engineering, project management and data analytics.

The Australian Government is supporting the national skills 
architecture, statetraining systems and apprenticeships, including a 
record $6.4 billion investment in 2021–22. This investment is helping 
train highly skilled and qualified workers, including in regional areas, 
and is supporting existing workers to acquire new skills and expertise. 
In 2020, the Government established the National Skills Commission to 
provide trusted and independent intelligence on Australia’s current and 
future skills, education and jobs.

This is complemented by the Modern Manufacturing Strategy, National 
Hydrogen Strategy and other initiatives. Collectively, these measures 
are helping build the skilled workforce Australia will need to capture 
the opportunities new technologies present in domestic and global 
markets. For example, the Australian and Tasmanian governments are 
working together on the $16.14 million Energising Tasmania Program. The 
program is developing a skilled workforce equipped with the electrical
and engineering expertise needed for the Battery of the Nation 
initiative, MarinusLink interconnector and ongoing growth of Tasmania’s 
renewable energy sector.


Bringing about a major change to the way a nation does business, 
creates, distributes and utilises energy and drastically reduces its 
output of greenhouse gases requires more than just money. Where the 
people who will do all this are coming from is not covered in the so 
called plan. Immigration? It looks like the rest of the world will be 
doing more than little old Australia. The risk is that our talented 
engineers will be attracted by countries who will be taking a much more 
realistic and urgent approach.

It's been said by others, but as a plan, there's just too much left 
unsaid. It's a marketing pitch, not a plan. It will be interesting to 
see the reaction of the rest of the world.

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
email: brd at iimetro.com.au