There are a few answers to this question!

Firstly, this question could be asked of all significant social challenges. Historically speaking, it has only ever been via the collective action of many individuals that great social challenge has been achieved. As an individual we feel small, but as a collective we are great.

Secondly, the Australian Jewish community has a particularly powerful role to play because even individuals are part of very strong and connected social networks. An individual action that is effectively spread through a school, a shul, a community centre, a friendship circle or family group, as some examples, has far greater impact than just an individual action.

The third answer to this one is individuals are part of a political system and a corporate system. Political solutions to climate change are critical this decade and politicians are motivated above all by what their voters demand from them. An individual voter who tells their politicians that they want ambitious climate action will stand out because very few people communicate what it is they want. So, an individual political act like writing a letter or making a phone call to an MP is very powerful. Similarly, an individual who works in a company and has a position of influence, or who is able to bring other staff team members together to impact their company's policies and approach to climate change has significant ability to make change.

Finally, there's also the ethical position of an individual taking a stand on something that they believe in. Many of us would have examples of issues that we deeply care about, and decide to take action on, even though we are only an individual because we want to be on the right side of history and also to have our internal values matching our external actions.

While many of us have had negative experiences engaging with politics and are sick of the partisan fighting around climate solutions, politicians at all levels, Local Government, State and Federal are key to the solution. The reasons for this are, firstly, they have access to more capital than private industry by a huge magnitude and their ability to direct billions, if not trillions of dollars towards climate solutions is a power that no other entity in society has. We saw an example of this during the COVID pandemic where hundreds of billions of dollars was immediately released to deal with a global problem.

The second reason is that politicians are the only members of society capable of making laws and regulations. Private industry that is responsible for developing new technologies needs an enabling environment created by law and regulation, making it as easy and smooth as possible for these technologies to be developed, to be scaled and to be funded.

The third reason engaging with politics and politicians is indispensable is because they can enforce the laws and regulations that are so essential to staying on track with climate action.

Australia does indeed only create about 1.5% of total global emissions. Nevertheless, it is an important player in decarbonising the world for a few reasons.

The first is, we are the top exporter of fossil fuels to the rest of the world. If these exports are included in Australia’s emissions profile, we are then the 6th most climate polluting nation. If we shift our industry from fossil fuels to renewable energy we can in turn influence the electricity grids and energy use of many other high emitting countries around the world. We can do this by exporting, for example, solar energy via a cable under the ocean. We actually plan to do this from the Northern Territory via the Sun Cable Project which will produce 20% of Singapore's energy by 2027.

The second reason why Australia is an important player in reducing its emissions is because we actually have the highest per capita emissions profile in the world.

The third reason why it's so important for Australia to take action and to not leave it to others, is because we are an important middle power that has influence in diplomatic circles such as the UN or the UN Security Council or other international bodies where our voice is much sought after.

Finally, there's the philosophical answer which is that just because a person, or a company, or a country cannot solve the whole problem doesn't mean that they shouldn't do what is within their power. As Jewish tradition teaches us: it is not your role to complete the work but neither are you free to desist from it.

It is also well established that developed countries like Australia, America and those in Europe, have had the advantage of the Industrial Revolution to develop over the last 250 years, an opportunity that many developing countries have not had. Therefore the imperative is on developed countries to use their wealth and existing technologies to decarbonise their economies a lot quicker than everybody else. They will take on a bit more of the burden, but that is only fair because they have received all of the economic and health benefits over the last 200 years of being high emitting countries. This will make all of the critical technologies that we need far more affordable for the developing countries to then also expand them at scale and reduce their emissions. So there is a difference between equality and equity when demanding ambitious climate policies from certain countries.

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