Investment session (1): Post Copenhagen

Speaker abstracts and biographies

Michael Williamson is Principal Strategic Adviser, Sustainable Energy at Sustainability Victoria, an agency of the State Government of Victoria. Michael’s experience over the last 13 years includes the implementation of micro hydropower systems in developing countries, delivery of commercialisation programs for renewable energy technologies and providing policy and strategic advice in Federal and State Governments.

Michael worked for several years developing micro hydropower projects for remote communities in Nepal and also was involved with utility scale hydropower, biogas, solar PV and energy efficient lighting projects. He spent five years with the Australian Greenhouse Office in Canberra on programmes funding the development of advanced solar, wind, biomass and wave power technologies. In this role he also was the policy manager of a venture capital fund investing in renewable energy startup companies. He left the Commonwealth Government to take up a series of assignments with the International Committee of the Red Cross as a water and habitat engineer, restoring essential services to communities during the civil war in Nepal. Since 2007 he has been working with Sustainability Victoria in strategy and programme implementation for renewable energy.
 

Climate solutions – where will the capital come from?

• The climate change target of 2degeesC warming, capping greenhouse gases at 450 ppm, requires US $Trillions of capital investment in Renewable Energy, Efficiency and turning tropical rain forests into carbon credits instead of lumber
• There is no public financing solution – private sector investment (or the lack of it) will decide the issue
• Key to mobilising long term capital for infrastructure and climate solutions of all kinds is participation by Pension Funds
• For the past  three years a group of large pension funds called “The P8” have been working for the public policy settings and the investment vehicles to enable pension funds to fill the capital shortfall.

Michael O’Sullivan, a P8 participant will describe progress and what lies ahead.

Michael O’Sullivan, President, Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI)
Michael O’Sullivan is the President of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI). ACSI was established in March of 2001 to carry out independent research into all areas of Corporate Governance on behalf of its member superannuation funds. ACSI provides a proxy voting advisory and engagement service to its members, as well as advocacy for higher governance standards, participation in the public policy debate and co-operation with international governance organisations.

ACSI has 41 member funds who represent more than five million beneficiaries and more than AUD$260 billion in funds under management.

Michael has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the International Corporate Governance Network, based in London.

Michael is also the Chairman of CARE Superannuation Fund. CARE Super is an Industry pension Fund for private sector clerical, professional and managerial employees and a public offer fund. He has been a Trustee Director since 1996. He is a member representative nominated by the Australian Services Union, of which he was National Executive President.

He has served the Fund as a member of its Administrative, Benefits, Investment Review and Risk Management Audit & Compliance Committees, and has served as Board Chairman and Deputy Chairman.

The investment implications of the Zero Carbon Australia 2020 (ZCA2020) Stationary Energy Plan
Matthew Wright will talk about the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan. This cutting-edge plan, the culmination of over 12 months and thousands of hours of pro bono work by engineers, scientists and postgraduate students, is a collaboration between the climate solutions think tank Beyond Zero Emissions and the University of Melbourne Energy Institute. It has received endorsements from key energy experts from across the globe and generated enthusiastic media coverage.

This plan is unique in Australia. It is a detailed and costed blueprint for transitioning our stationary energy sector to 100% renewable energy in ten years. The technologies utilised in this plan are commercially available now. This vision and the commercial technologies included in it present unique investment opportunities in Australia, which has some of the world's best renewable energy resources. Matthew will discuss in particular the implications of investing significantly in renewables as an immediate solution, as opposed to the conventional thinking of using gas as a transitional fuel.

Matthew will discuss in particular the implications of investing significantly in renewables as an immediate solution, as opposed to the conventional thinking of using gas as a transitional fuel.
 

Matthew Wright, Executive Director, Beyond Zero Emissions
Matthew Wright is Executive Director of climate solutions think tank Beyond Zero Emissions, an organisation focused decarbonising the Australian economy. The organisation has a strategic research collaboration with the University of Melbourne's Energy Research Institute.

Matthew started a Renewable Energy awareness organisation in 2003 called Future Energy. In 2006 the scope of this organisation was broadened to cover all sectors of the economy and he co-founded Beyond Zero Emissions. Prior to his role at Beyond Zero Emissions Matthew worked in the provision of financial information and news to corporates, energy and commodity markets, banks and other financial institutions.
 

Updating Australia and New Zealand's renewable energy investment attractiveness
Every quarter, Ernst & Young provide to the financial markets a country attractiveness index for renewable energy investment. This ranks 27 developed countries, including Australia, across a number of key technologies including wind, solar PV, solar CSP, biomass and geothermal. In the last quarter, Australia slipped to 12th position behind countries such as Portugal, Canada, Spain, Italy, China and many others. At the same time, Australia's geothermal moved into the top place for investment attractiveness, ahead of wind and solar PV. To complement this global perspective, in 2009 Ernst & Young Australia ranked the individual Australian States for their renewable energy investment attractiveness and highlighted Western Australia's strong position.

This presentation  will therefore focus on providing an update of the key variables driving Australia's renewable energy country attractiveness, individual State attractiveness, and also introduce the relevant drivers for the north and south islands of New Zealand.

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Richard Featherby, Executive Director, Ernst & Young
Richard Featherby is an executive director in the Project Finance Advisory area of Ernst & Young’s Transaction Advisory Services Practice. Richard has extensive experience in the power and utilities sector for both Government and private sector organisations. He has been involved in a range of project finance transactions for coal and gas fired generators, wind and solar power as well as bio-waste plants. This experience includes early feasibility work as well as substantial fund raising engagements. He is also currently involved in raising funding for a small scale carbon efficient generation project.