AFR Energy and Climate Summit: Opening Remarks 2025

It is my great privilege to welcome you to the Australian Financial Review’s Energy & Climate Summit, held on Gadigal land in the heart of Sydney.

Deloitte has been the major sponsoring partner of this Summit for many years. Over this time, we have seen the energy transition embraced by governments, industry, investors and consumers… albeit, not always in that order or with the same level of passion and commitment.

It feels like, globally, we are in a period of significant polarisation on the merits, the realities, and the prospects, of the energy transition and meeting 2050 targets. Domestically, this has played out recently through the conflicting response to the setting of the 2035 emissions reduction target of 62-70%.

However over time, and through much of the dialogue and ideas shared and generated at this Summit, it has become apparent that the energy transition is a movement that is unstoppable.

And I use the word ‘movement’ quite intentionally.

It has scale, momentum, permanence and impact, at both a national and global level.

It is both powerful and persistent and ultimately, cannot be reversed.

Despite nay sayers, geopolitical forces and the inevitable challenges of removing the policy, regulatory, financial, human capital and technology shackles slowing our progress, we are on the path to net zero.

We are on the path to delivering, arguably, the greatest industrial revolution of our time.

But the question remains - how do we as an industry navigate the energy transition, ensuring energy security while simultaneously optimising our businesses and unlocking future growth?

Critically, how do we do this at a cost that is not at the cost of reliability, affordability, and sustainability?

As the Productivity Commission noted at the outset of the Interim Report on investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation, reductions in emissions comes with costs, but “these can be minimised with careful policy design, freeing up resources for more productive activities and enabling gains in productivity and living standards”.

None of these outcomes can be achieved without collaboration. But importantly, beyond the sentiment of collaboration, none of these outcomes can be achieved without a clear and tactical plan for coordination.

While we are likely (sadly) to remain on varied energy transition trajectories, we cannot afford for energy security and the energy transition to be undermined by a myriad of shifting, inconsistent and overlapping policies and agencies, inadvertently roadblocking the ability to make long-term investment decisions and get investment on the ground.

And this investment challenge is not just an energy industry challenge, but an ‘every industry’ decarbonisation challenge, reflected in the mix of industries represented in the room today.

Deloitte firmly believes that the Australian economy is incredibly well-placed to benefit from the energy transition, but setting up our domestic industries for success requires us to move forward both at pace and with coordination across policy and incentive settings and industries.

So let’s all embrace where dialogue over the next two days take could take us and what actions we can take to realise our collective responsibility to deliver the energy transition.

Let’s collectively and collaboratively focus on the question of how, not the question of if – our people, our communities, our way of being, our path to long-term, sustained prosperity and security, is depending on it, and heavily so.

And on that note, welcome to the Summit on behalf of the Deloitte partnership.