Book launch:  Power, Prosperity & Planet  by Thom Woodroofe (Gleebooks, Sydney)

Australia’s climate debate has long focused on three central pillars: clean power, future economic prosperity and protecting the planet. After nearly two decades of “the climate wars”, we’ve heard the calls: we must decarbonise our energy system, we must develop our green industries and clean tech, and we must do more to keep global temperature increases within safe limits.

Yet while climate change affects us all, the arguments for climate action are rarely framed in terms of the impact on ordinary Australians. In the face of high electricity and petrol prices, how can more households benefit from cheaper renewable energy and electric vehicles? Given our continued reliance on fossil fuel exports, how can Australia avoid falling off an economic cliff in the coming decades? With swathes of the country at risk of climate-related disaster, how can we enhance our resilience and avoid insurance loss? And what are the real benefits at home of seeking to be an international climate leader?

In this clear-sighted volume, Woodroofe outlines why the next wave of climate and energy policy in Australia must focus intently on middle Australia, designing policies that make sense from the Cabinet Room to every lounge room across the mortgage belts and beyond. The price – economically, politically and environmentally – is too great if we do not.

Thom Woodroofe is a Senior International Fellow with the Smart Energy Council. He played a key role in securing the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015, including helping establish the High Ambition Coalition of progressive nations. He has since worked as chief of staff to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, for the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade in Washington DC, and forged a backchannel for US–China climate talks during his time at the Asia Society in New York. Thom studied diplomacy as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and – thanks to solar power – grew up off-the-grid in regional Victoria.