Audio recordings of the presentations at the feature festival event ‘The Great Debate’ at the Big Weekend of the National Sustainable Living Festival 2018 on 9 February 2018.

Photos by Julian Meehan

The event set out to explore the vital role carbon ‘drawdown’ could play in helping reach a below zero emission world. What will Australia’s role look like in mounting this historic social, political and technical mobilisation to cool the planet fast?

The event organisers asked the speakers to reflect on the question: Do we have the capability to reverse global warming within a meaningful timeframe? Have we left our run too late?

“The chance for us to create a sustainable world now rests precariously in our ability to reverse dangerous global warming in a meaningful timeframe. So is it now possible to restore climate conditions back to those safe for human civilisation?”

The speakers’ brief was to split their time half on: What are the solutions that need to happen? – and the other half on: How do we get the social and political change we need to see to get there?

Paul Hawken, Californian environmentalist, author and activist – together with Kelly O’Shanassy

We are hoping Paul Hawken’s speech will be aired on national radio soon and therefore not publishing it here.

» www.slf.org.au/event/great-debate

About the speakers

Anna Skarbek has led ClimateWorks since its inception in 2009. Anna guides ClimateWorks’ independent research and advisory work analysing emissions reduction opportunities and partnering with government and business to unblock barriers to implementation.

Anna brings considerable private and public sector knowledge to the role as an experienced investment banker, policy advisor and qualified lawyer. Prior to ClimateWorks, Anna was based in London where she applied her skills as an advisor dedicated to raising and deploying capital for low carbon activities as Vice President, Advisory, at Climate Change Capital. She has also worked as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Victorian Deputy Premier, an investment banker for Macquarie Bank and as a solicitor with Malleson Stephen Jacques.

Anna was an inaugural Director of Australia’s green investment bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and is a Director of Green Buildings Council Australia, a Trustee of the Sustainable Melbourne Fund, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a member of the Grattan Institute’s Energy Program Reference Panel and a member of the Leadership Forum for Energy Transition for Australia.

Previously Anna has served on the South Australian Government’s Low Carbon Economy Expert Panel, the Victorian Climate Change Act Independent Review Committee, the Australian Government’s Energy White Paper Reference Panel and the former Australian Government Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Board, as well as with the NGO Roundtable on Climate Change.

Anna holds First Class Honours Degrees in Commerce and Law from Monash University. She is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has completed leadership studies at the Oxford University Said Business School and the Melbourne Business School. Anna was a double Finalist in the 2014 Victorian Telstra Business Women’s Awards in the Business Innovation and Community & Government categorie...