There is no point expecting federal politicians to fix the climate crisis right now. It’s time for all of us to stop passively watching and act.

Last week I sat in a small room on Lady Elliot Island listening to Professor Anthony Richardson from UQ speak about climate change and its projected impacts on the marine environment. He spoke while presenting slides projecting impacts from now to 2100.

In the audience were 20 or so year 11 students from a high school in Brisbane, and as Anthony spoke to the slides I watched the response of the students.?

Fascination. Frustration. Enthusiasm. Despair. Hope.

And I realised that many of the students could well still be alive in 2100 to witness the outcome of our collective efforts to do something or do nothing about the climate crisis.

I will be long dead. As will Mister Morrison and his colleagues. But for the students in the presentation, the crisis and the challenge is real.?

They will have to live with what is or isn’t done over the next ten years and beyond. And so will their children and grandchildren.

It was obvious from the slides that if we are going to avoid disaster, then we have to act now, not in twenty or thirty years time, which seems to be the Federal plan of “kick the can down the road”.

It’s a good job that the Australian states have a different view of targets and actions than our current national leaders. NSW and South Australia have both set targets to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030. Victoria has set a 45-50% range. Even Queensland has a 30% target.

Leadership from the major states.

So if all states and territories act as planned, then the Morrison target of 26-28% becomes irrelevant, with the states and territories between them reaching at least 34%.?

And if we leverage this effort in reduction wisely, we can also generate new jobs in green export industries.?

It really is possible to do more than one thing at a time. We can reduce emissions significantly AND create new green industries providing jobs for the existing workforce as well as for students from every high school across Australia.

A report by Beyond Zero Emissions “think tank” suggests that green export industries could be worth triple the value of today’s fossil fuels by 2050 if we act swiftly.?

But we can’t just replace fossil fuels – oil and coal, with a different group of fossil fuels – gas and the myth of “carbon capture and storage”. That won’t work.

We must support green hydrogen, solar, wind, batteries, pumped hydro and electric vehicles. Reducing emissions.?

We must recycle, reduce plastic packaging, and manage and remove plastic from the rivers and oceans. Clean up the mess.

We can even sell carbon-offset credits to developing countries worldwide off the back of wide-scale solar and wind generation. And export emissions removal strategies, technologies and solutions.?

The take up of EVs in Australia is one of the lowest in the world at less than 1%.

Yet, we have significant reserves of lithium and other energy minerals — essential to the manufacture of car batteries. We have one of the best battery charging companies in the world in?Tritium .?

And we have emerging companies such as?SEA Trucks , an innovative electric truck manufacturing company. But we can do a lot more.

The 2020s needs to be the decade of transformational action.

We need to do more than just “kick the can down the road” hoping and expecting future federal Governments to do something.

And let’s accept an honest truth here…the current federal government can’t do anything about the climate crisis.?

It is trapped in inaction, by internal disagreements, ideological divisions and worries about winning the next election. So we can’t expect anything more than platitudes for at least six months. That's just the way it is.

However, state governments are getting on with it, and acting with vision and direction.

And just about every corporate business has awoken to the business challenge and the business opportunity as well.?

So it’s not all bad. We can do a lot, regardless of federal government inaction.

The challenge is here, right now and each of us can do something to address it.?

That was an issue raised by the students in question time. “What can we do?” “How can I make a difference?”

Nothing wrong with those two questions, as long as they become a springboard for action, not an excuse for being a passive onlooker.

It is easy to feel powerless. It is easy to blame China, India and other nations.

It is easy to say, “but we only create 1.3 percent of emissions, so how can we possibly make a difference?”

It is easy to think that we can’t make a difference.?

But we can.?

Both by action. And by example.

By sharing and exporting technologies to the world, developed off the back of the mining industry in Australia – green hydrogen, pollution control, EV, PV, water, autonomous vehicles, robotics etc.

Andrew Forrest’s actions speak louder than words. He is committing real money to support green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and countries across the planet.

The Gladstone plant, to be built by Mr Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries, is expected to start producing up to two gigawatts worth of electrolysers annually from 2023.

The Sun Cable project backed by Andrew Forrest and Mike Cannon-Brookes will allow renewable solar energy to be generated in Australia and then exported to Singapore by a high voltage direct current cable from the Northern Territory.

CSIRO and many of our universities are world leaders in innovation and solution development. But the funding to commercialise these solutions needs to follow.?

The ideas and solutions need commercialisation. With funding from government and from commerce.

For example, CSIRO has developed a seaweed feed ingredient that can be added to cattle feed to reduce methane emissions and improve production.?

About 15% of the world’s greenhouse emissions come from livestock production.??So FutureFeed will reduce methane emissions by more than 80%, creating income for Australia in the process.

In Japan,?a team of Japanese researchers, led by Dr Shosuke Yoshida from the Kyoto Institute of Technology, has discovered a new species of bacteria that produces a never-before-seen plastic-eating enzyme.

CSIRO is isolating specific bacteria that use enzymes to breakdown organic pollutants – in pesticides and explosives.

Our research agencies and universities are up to the task. But government needs to increase funding, rather than continue to wind it back. Any investment in education and research is an investment in future solutions, export products and services, jobs and resilience.

Australian technologies can make a big difference.

Act local. Share national.?

Then export and share products, services and strategies internationally.

We need a shift in thinking and belief. We are not powerless. It’s not up to somebody else to fix the problems. We can't wait to see who gets elected next year.

Recognise “the power of one”.?

Every change in the history of the world started with one person.?

When we leverage, share and magnify individual ideas and efforts, we can do anything.?

Acting and learning.?

Testing strategies. Creating new products and services.?Publishing and sharing the results. Educating and explaining.?

The internet provides an universal platform for sharing and collaboration.

Which can be used for good purposes as well as bad.

Newspapers and magazines can provide platforms for good news as well as bad.

Corporates can provide channels for good actions as well as bad.

We all have friends, family, business associates, connections and networks.

Now is the time to use them.

Big challenges always offer big opportunities and this challenge offers opportunities galore.

At COP in Glasgow, the veteran broadcaster, Sir?David Attenborough , found the words that got delegates out of their seats.

He told the conference that humans were the “greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth”, and it is not beyond the wit of man to “turn this tragedy into a triumph”.

“We now understand this problem, we know how to stop the number rising and put it in reverse,” he said.

Of course, he is right. We know what to do. And collaboratively we can do it.

There is no need to wait for the next federal election. It’s a sideshow.

We can solve this problem without waiting for federal government to catch up with the rest of the "acting world".

Real action is happening everywhere. Generated by individuals, NFPs, corporates, and state governments. We just need to support and magnify positive action wherever it can be found. And publish and share what we find.

The time for action is now.?

Tally Ho.