Australia is home to some of the planet's most extraordinary natural assets - many found nowhere else in the world. From our unique biodiversity to the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef ecosystem visible from space, these are treasures of global significance. They are also fundamental to Australia's prosperity: our natural capital underpins tourism, agriculture, and community wellbeing, and increasingly forms part of Australia's international brand.

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Yet the uncomfortable truth is that every day, our current approach to climate change puts these irreplaceable assets - and our competitive advantage - at risk. Protecting them isn't just a moral imperative. It's an economic one. Preserving natural capital, accelerating clean industry, and enabling low-carbon innovation are central to Australia's future growth story.

To stay competitive, Australia must accelerate one of the largest and fastest economic transformations since the Industrial Revolution: industrial decarbonisation.

The federal government's net zero plan takes important steps - with policies including the safeguard mechanism, renewable electricity market, capacity investment scheme, and new vehicle efficiency standards. Still, targets alone are not enough. The expectation is Australia will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42.6 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. However, Oxford Economics Australia has cautioned that our 2050 net zero target remains "aspirational" rather than assured. Progress is real, but too slow to match the pace of global change.

For decades, sustainability was framed as a cost. That era is over. Today, decarbonisation is about competitiveness, profitability, and resilience. Investors, customers, supply-chain partners, and regulators........

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