The Race to GREEN & GOLD in 2032.

With the passing Full Moon, we’re now into the new Year of the Tiger and the Australia China Business Council is also well into our Net Zero Working Group’s “Green Channel” program activation. The purpose of our "Green Channel" initiative is to bring focus and attention to the opportunities for Trade & Investment between Australia and China to if we work together to address the shared challenges presented by Climate Change, and our collective Net Zero ambitions.

#acbcgreenchannel #netzerofastertogether

From Beijing to Brisbane

The Beijing Winter Olympics are wrapping up this week and we thought it timely for us to consider what we might learn from Beijing’s efforts in hosting their GREEN Olympics, and what we might be able work together on as we strive for GOLD to host the 2032 Games in Brisbane.?

China's Olympic vision, represented by "Sustainability, Towards the Future" and the goal of "creating a new model of sustainable development for the Olympic Games and the region". Constructed from three aspects: positive environmental impact, new regional development, and a better life. “确定了“可持续·向未来”的愿景，以及“创造奥运和地区可持续发展新典范”的目标。从环境正影响、区域新发展、生活更美好三个方面构建了工作框架，共包括12项行动、37项任务和119条具体措施.

Australia's Olympic Challenge

Planning for Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028) Summer Olympic Games is well under way, and if you think back 10 years to what you were doing in 2012, you quickly realise how fast 2032 will be upon us.

The Games of the XXXV Olympiad, or Brisbane 2032, will be a multi-sport, multi-venue event, scheduled from 23 July to 8 August 2032.

The Games Master Plan identifies 37 venues for 28 Olympic and 22 Paralympic sports. With a billion-dollar price tag, events will span from Far-North Queensland to the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and the, Gold Coast and then on to Sydney and Melbourne.

The construction of new and upgraded venues is a massive task, not to mention the obvious opportunities for improvements to airports, transport, accommodation and digital infrastructure.

And just as the digital yuan was the official currency for the Beijing Winter Olympics, will a digital Aussie dollar be the official payment medium for a cashless Brisbane 2032?

Brisbane-based Global Architectural firm Populous was intimately involved with the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, helping to design the Iconic new National Speed Skating Arena. The Ice Ribbon.

As a catalyst event, Brisbane 2032 presents a huge opportunity for Australian innovation and industrial transformation. For Australia China Business Council members, it represents an opportunity to work together with our Chinese business partners on how to achieve Net Zero faster, together.

In this briefing note, we highlight the “Olympic” experiences of some of our members and other Australian companies as we seek to explore new opportunities for trade and investment, and to identify areas that are open to cooperation.

Identifying Green Channel opportunities.

We’ve looked at these opportunities through our new “Green Channel” lens.??

ACBC’s Green Channel was formally launched earlier this year as national initiative of the Australia China Business Council. Focussed on clear and measurable outcomes, our Green Channel is an over-arching framework designed to elevate engagement with China on trade and investment opportunities to address a shared global risk - Climate Change .

It will be a multi-year program of activities, collaborations, thought-leadership, projects and discussions that will help to define the nature of the opportunity and provide members with the information, networks and tools necessary to make sound commercial decisions.

By leveraging our strengths and focussing our member activities, we expect to increase the weight and influence of our members’ endeavours on Australia’s policy makers through successful outcomes.

Opportunities for Green collaboration

With an eye on a GOLD experience in Brisbane, Beijing provides insights for collaboration.

1.????Smart City/ Internet of Things/ AR:

Queensland is already well on the way with activations on Smart City and Green Living projects. Pioneering organisations like Springfield City Group and the Queensland Government are working with global energy companies, like Engie , to deliver on a 50-year program for a Net Zero City. Australian companies like Evergen are leading the world in the management of battery storage systems integrated into virtual power plants and helping to balance the energy grid.

Whilst much has been speculated on regarding the transparency and sustainability of the Beijing Olympics, ACBC’s Green Channel networks have access to some of the innovative tools in use in Beijing, like the Zhidu Cloud platform , developed to track energy use, emissions and reporting in real-time across all of the Olympics venues.

There is much to be gained from working together in preparation for Brisbane.

The IOC set out the guidelines for Beijing. The sustainable development of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics follows three international standards: ISO 20121 Sustainability Management System for Large-scale Events, ISO 14001 Environmental Management System and ISO26000 Social Responsibility Guidelines. Full Report is available here .

2.????Energy:

In the energy sector, Queensland, and Australia, have big challenges ahead in balancing their energy mix with GDP & Net Zero targets.

But then again, so does China on its path to Peak Carbon by 2030, and Net Zero by 2060.

How do we work together to solve these shared challenges?

What opportunities are there to collaborate?

These were the key points for our ACBC Net Zero Business Dialogue in December 2021. It provided s forum for the major Mining & Resources businesses, responsible for billions of dollars of Australia’s GDP and millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions, to identify what projects they were working on, and where we can work together to achieve our shared goals together.

We will be setting out additional top-level dialogues in other key sectors as part of our Green Channel program.

Our Energy inter-dependance.

Australia’s prosperity is linked closely with China’s energy sector - from purchasing coal and gas, to investing in mines, and the infrastructure that supports the mining, energy and resources sectors.

China’s industrial manufacturing capacity has helped build much of Australia’s traditional fossil-fuel power infrastructure, our water, waste and civil works.

Much of our exports of Iron Ore have gone into their phenomenal infrastructure growth.

And now much of the component parts behind our new renewable wind, solar and storage generation comes from China.

China’s energy switch

From announcements to the UN , China’s Net Zero goals have now been embedded into the National Development & Reform Commission’s Articles of Governance (能耗双控 ).

As a showcase, the organisers of the Beijing Winter Olympics went in with a goal to be 100% Renewable, and a target to measure and define transparency around a Net Zero games. New Infrastructure was built (including high speed rail, high voltage DC transmission lines, gigawatts of wind and solar), a new energy trading system, and new energy innovations (such as hydrogen) accelerated.

All of this was trialled and tested in the Beijing Olympics and by all reports, targets have been achieved.

China’s challenge is huge, installing 4 times more renewables every year between now and 2030 than we have installed in Australia to date. And it still won’t be enough.

So what can we do to work together to achieve our shared goals?

What can we share from what we have we learnt from being at the forefront of renewable energy integration with project such as those in South Australia ?

?

What are the areas of collaboration for our mining & resources companies to demonstrate action on their decarbonisation efforts?

These are the programs that we are facilitating and connected with through the ACBC’s Green Channel . Stay tuned for more information and reach out if you want to be involved.

3.????Transport:

China’s emission challenges have been fuelled by not only its Investment-led infrastructure investment growth, but also the explosion of private, public and commercial vehicle use.

However, China has led the world in the adoption of battery electric, and now fuel cell electric vehicles, with 3 million EV units sold in 2021 alone.

Although Australia’s EV jumped 200% in 2021, they are still sitting at only 5,500 units. Less that 2% of the total market.

New models, materials, fuels, technology, refuelling infrastructure and local manufacturing, (and new resource and mining), are all opportunities for the local Australian market. We can learn from China’s scale, with LIDAR, AI, Big Data, AV is all well advanced.

As part of our Green Channel initiative, we are talking with Australian Electric vehicle pioneers, such as ACE Electric Vehicles , (QLD) and Nexport (QLD/ NSW) about the headwinds and tailwinds for achieving global success from Australia.

These, and many other local companies, are already learning and partnering with China.

These Brisbane Olympic Games can be the catalyst for new green innovation and growth.

China already has 500,000 Electric buses on the roads, and, as a result of the Green Hydrogen Winter Olympics , Policy levers are in place to support the roll out 1,500 Hydrogen Refuelling Stations by 2025 and an explosion of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles for heavy transport and commercial vehicles.

How can we tie these developments into our Brisbane Olympics planning and grow local manufacturing?

What can we do together to draw on Beijing’s success???

The Green Channel Lens?

When you put on your Green Channel glasses with us, you will quickly see that there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration on Climate between Australia and China.

This brief analysis of the 2032 Brisbane Games is just one example of the collaborative activity that we wanted to highlight as these Beijing Winter Games comes to a close.

There is much to share and learn together.

The ACBC has extensive networks in Cross-border Retail, Agribusiness, Education, Property, New Materials, Green Finance, Professional Services and the Creative/ Arts/ Culture Sector.

An example of our collaborative activities includes an upcoming roundtable with Australian National University Institute for Climate and Energy

Please register to join us at our Seminar with ANU on March 16th as we highlight these, and more opportunities for collaboration on the Climate Challenge.

We look forward to working with you to highlight the successes through our Green Channel engagement.?

Anthony Coles

Australia China Business Council National Board Member

Chair, Net Zero Working Group