Media Releases

The Mirvac Group (“Mirvac”) has taken another step forward in sustainability and signed up as a Major Climate Partner with The Climate Institute.

The Climate Institute is an independent research organisation wholly focused on finding solutions to combat climate change. Their vision is for “a resilient Australia prospering in a low carbon global economy, participating fully and fairly in international climate change solutions”. 

This partnership follows Mirvac’s achievement of being internationally recognised as one of the top-scoring companies in the Carbon Disclosure Project (“CDP”) disclosure and performance indices.

“We are pleased to welcome Mirvac to our Climate Partner Program as a Major Partner.” said John Connor, CEO The Climate Institute. 

“The central role of business in helping build a smarter, cleaner and more resilient Australia is one of the primary reasons we launched the Climate Partner program in 2010. Mirvac is a great addition to our group of leading businesses who all share an understanding of both the risks and opportunities of the climate challenge.”

All else being equal, the impact of the Clean Energy Future Act and its assistance package results in a slight overall medium term production subsidy for Australian emission intensive manufacturing.

The impact of carbon prices and limits on emission intensive trade exposed manufacturing industries is complex. As Treasury note, “At the broad sectoral level, structural changes due to carbon pricing are much smaller than the effects of ongoing changes in the terms of trade or tastes [and associated shift to a service based economy]. …  Sectors will grow at similar rates with or without carbon pricing.”¹

This is consistent with experience in the EU. For example, a paper released this week examining the impact if the EU ETS on its aluminium industry found, “There is no evidence that the European carbon price has led to a decline in competitiveness of European aluminium compared to foreign imports.”²

The impact of the carbon price on specific industries will be affected by how polluting they are and the level of assistance they receive from the Government.

In many cases – in particular chemicals, iron and steel, alumina and aluminium – the industry overall increases its output under carbon pricing scenarios (see Figure 1 and 2 based on Treasury, 2011).

The Climate Institute has released a policy brief to explain the main outcomes of the latest UN climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa. The talks produced significant progress and have important implications for Australia’s domestic climate change policies as we enter 2012 and head towards a legally binding agreement by 2015.

Here are the key elements, which are further examined in the brief:

The 2011 Durban Climate Summit ended with the adoption of a set of 37 formal UN decisions dealing with a wide range of issues related to international cooperation on climate change.  Most importantly, it delivered important progress in three key areas:

1. Agreement to negotiate a single, legally binding agreement by 2015 that will cover all major carbon pollution emitters including, most importantly, China, India and the United States;
2. Establishment of the Green Climate Fund, building on the commitment made in Cancun to raise US$100 billion a year to help the world’s poorest nations invest in clean energy and manage the unavoidable impacts of climate change;
3. Commitment from all countries to increase the level of ambition of national efforts to reduce pollution, building on the formal recognition that existing commitments are not enough to keep global warming below 2 °C or 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Questions regarding the Durban policy brief should be directed to Will McGoldrick at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 03 9600 4039.

Download Assessment (PDF, 1.5MB)