Climate crisis solutions may also ease global financial shocks, Albanese to tell business leaders
Anthony Albanese will tell business leaders at the G20 summit that one of the pathways to recovery from global shocks including the pandemic and the current inflation spiral is countries working together to deal with the climate crisis.
Australia’s prime minister will arrive in Bali on Monday for the G20 summit, and Albanese will use a keynote address at the B20 – the business summit that runs alongside the G20 – to argue recovery will require coordinated action to “recover together and recover stronger”.
To boost economic growth, Albanese will argue nations need to ensure national tax systems “reward people for the hard work” and encourage entrepreneurship and job creation.
Nations will also need to build “resilience and diversity” into supply chains “so we are better prepared for global shocks” and resist creeping economic nationalism by breaking down tariff walls and building trade bridges.
But Albanese will argue the climate crisis gives the world an opportunity not only to counter the existential risk of a warming planet, but to retool the global economy for sustainability. The prime minister will say Australia is working “to grow our clean energy export industry”.
“For governments and business, investing and developing clean energy will enhance our individual energy security and it will strengthen our collective action on climate change,” Albanese will tell Monday’s forum.
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“I’m proud that my government has acted quickly to drive the transformation to net zero – and I am pleased so many members of the Australian business community shared and support this commitment.”
“Above all, we are committed to co-operating with other nations to help reduce their emissions, grow their economies and improve living standards, because just as none of us are immune from the global challenge of climate change, all of us have a part to play in the solution.”
The prime minister will say there needs to be a “focus on the horizon” even in the heart of the storm. “Put simply: the G20 was made for these moments and built for these challenges.”
Albanese spent the weekend in Cambodia at the Asean and East Asia Summits before flying to Bali for the G20. A focal point of the international current summit season has been whether or not the prime minister can advance Australia’s cautious diplomatic rapprochement with Beijing.
The prime minister spoke to the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, at a gala dinner in Phnon Penh on Saturday night, raising expectations that he will speak to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping at some point during the G20.
The US president, Joe Biden, will meet Xi in Bali on Monday. As flagged by Guardian Australia last week, Albanese caught up with Biden on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit on Sunday shortly after it was confirmed the Democratic party would keep control of the Senate after the recent midterms.
The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, invited Albanese to make a keynote speech at the B20 on Monday evening, alongside the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi. The B20 summit was established in 2010, and the program for 2022 has been organised by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Australian business leaders will attend the G20. When Albanese visited Indonesia soon after winning the federal election in May, he took a substantial business delegation to the Jakarta as part a trade diversification strategy.
After that visit, the head of Industry Super Funds, Greg Combet, led a followup delegation to the country.