Quotes from the event and closing remarks

• Joel Lazar
  ”We need to make this transition happen at rapid speed. We hear people comparing it to World War II speed … of mobilizing our government, our private business and all of our citizens to meet this challenge and avert the worst of climate change. And there are hundreds of people watching tonight who are wondering, ‘What’s my role in all of this? I know the government needs to intervene, I know that business needs to intervene; I’m a citizen, where do I plug into this wide scale project that needs to happen as quickly as possible?’”

• Audrey Zibelman
  ”People should say, “what am I interested in?” It’s not just for engineers. You see plenty of people entering into the industry for policy, plenty of people entering into the industry because they’re really interested in human behaviour and how to change human behaviour. You see people entering the industry for law, economics, accounting, IT … it fits about any need that people have. What I find gratifying at AEMO, is when we survey employees and we find that 44% of our employees are under 35, and more than half of our employees come from other countries… people are entering the energy industry because they realise… there is no time to mess around, and this is really important.”

• Etyan Lenko
  ”I think there is a stereotype in people’s heads that working in climate change means building renewable energy, building solar farms, wearing hi-vis as a part of your job. Certainly that is part of it. This is a once in a civilisation transition that we are going to go through, over the next 20 years. There will be trillions and trillions of dollars spent, and there won’t be a part of the economy that is untouched. There will need to be financial innovations.... There is a whole lot of work that needs to be done by our bankers and accountants and finance whizzes to enable how all of these projects will be financed. Lawyers, equally. There will be innovations in contract law. Basically every field is going to be involved in some way or another. My advice is to be open to opportunities. Be confident that this is the general direction of the economy and you have got to position yourself to be a player in it.”

• Malcolm Turnbull
  ”I think the most important thing is to make sure of your political commitment. You may not want to write speeches or write columns, but you can make sure that your vote counts, and make sure you let your elected representatives know that you are focused on this energy transition. That is absolutely critical.”