 Good afternoon. I'm speaking Yambri Wogalooaradri language. Mijunbalda Paul House-Gerua, Dr. Aunee Matilda House, and I am from Paul House, Dr. Aunee Matilda House. Ngari Marambang-Abuluningi Nunawa Boro. It's good to see everyone here today. Nyalangalangbo. Yibabangu-Woga-bo-Migay-bo. Jinnanil-Bangmaraya. Ladies and gentlemen, young men, young women distinguished. Yes, Ngari and Jamali, Nyaambri, Gamao-Wogaloo-Walabaloa, Nunawa-Mujigang-Yanangbu-Jandu. I respect the Nyaambri, Gamao-Wogaloo-Walabaloa, elders past and present. Ngari and Jamali, Mujigangu-Nurrambanjigu-Ninyiridu. I respect the world people, all elders from all parts of the country here today. Nyaambri-Nunawa. Maranya-Gaimbanya-Ninyo-Ga-Nurrambangu-Dara. Nyaambri-Nunawa people, welcome you all to the country. Yinja-Mara, Yinja-Malgiri-Yinja-Marabu. Respect, respected, respecting. Mamawara-Naminya-Gu-Wujigabinyavu-Dara-Gu-Winingal-Gubal-Gu. Looking to see, listening to hear, and learning to understand. Yinja-Marara-Respect. Yinja-Maramagiri-Biringa-Bogangu-Dirindara. Respect can be found in the journey of the Bogong moths in the mountains. Yinja-Mara-Balawalamangadabu-Murramadandabu-Bamuyugurangambira. Respect can be found in the grinding stones and the carved trees made long ago on country. Yinja-Mara-Balabiradabu-Nibiravu-Dara. Respect can be found in the rivers quietly moving through country. Murramagiri-Yinja-Mara-Murramuravu-Dara-Dara. A respectful way of life cares for country. Our welcome to countries are made in the spirit of peace and a desire for harmony for all peoples of the modern ACP and surrounds. And as local custodians, our main aim is to establish an atmosphere of mutual respect through the acknowledgement of our ancestors and the recognition of our rights to declare our special place in the pre- and post-contact of the region. We warmly welcome everyone now living and visiting and working on our ancestral country. Yinja-Mara-Balabiradabu-Nibiravu-Dara. Yinja-Mara-Balabiradabu-Nibiravu-Dara. Respect is taken responsibility for the now, the past and the present. We've cared for Mother Earth since the dawn of time. And evidence of our statehood, our sovereignty, our ownership can be seen everywhere throughout the land and country. Our signature is in the land, not just our DNA and taking care of country is important to us. Respect everything living and growing. The law of the land talks about giving respect and honour to all people in all parts of the country. Being patient, giving honour, being patient, being polite, being gentle, then people will respect you. Our people who through law and custom, who law and custom still hold culture knowledge in a contemporary society. We continue to maintain deep respect for our culture and heritage and to look after our ancestral lands and waters. In conclusion, I'd like to congratulate everyone here today, our families and your families, everyone, and talk about Yinja-Mara-Mara-Mara-Nia-Nia-Nia-Gitama-Mara-Nya. Respect shapes us and lifts up the people. In conclusion, we'd like to, on behalf of our elders, our matriarchs, we'd like to say Gura-Buri, Welcome, and Wura-Gewari, and play a welcome song for you on Yidaki. As part of our cult, Oka Blessing. Thank you, my brother. Thank you, Aunty Matilda and Paul, for welcoming us today to your country. Indeed, it is such a privilege that you are prepared to welcome all of us to this traditional meeting place. I've lived in Yidaki, I've lived in Yidaki, I've lived in Yidaki, I've lived in Yidaki, I've lived in Yidaki, I've lived in Yidaki, I've lived in Yidaki, I've lived in Yidaki. And here we meet today on one of the most important days of the University, our graduation. I too would like to acknowledge and celebrate the first Australians on who's traditional lands we are meeting today pay my respects to elders, past and present. Welcome, everyone, to a first of a kind, a hybrid grand graduation celebration. After an unprecedented year, I am pleased to say that we have been able to come together today to celebrate the incredible milestone of graduating. I'd like to welcome our graduates, our alumni, and staff who are joining us from across Australia and indeed around the world. We have graduates joining us from Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai, and Beijing. I'd also like to thank all of the wonderful alumni who are hosting our satellite events today. So we are going to go and cross to places. We're first joined by our first duo in Beijing where we have Mu Tian and Grace Wu who are celebrating with our graduates live in Beijing. We have a little bit of a digital delay. We'll give them just a second, but I think, all right, well, the first time you do things, things are interesting. I'm hoping we'll give Grace and Mu just a chance to get up. As I said, I know there is a very long delay, but we'll have a good pan through them and hopefully we'll have a few words. All right, well, all right, we're going to try to go to Shanghai next and we'll see how we do there. In Shanghai, we have our host Michelle Shia and hi, Michelle, I hope things are going well in Shanghai and we know there's a slight delay, so we'll let you get up and hope you can say hello. All right, we're going to actually cross and we may get a chance to get back. We just have a slight issue in terms of the connection that's popped up at the last minute, but we're going to go now a little closer to home. We're joined at our Sydney reception by JJ Chen and all of our Sydney grads. So JJ, I'm hoping you're having a great time there. Good to see you. Good to see you too, Brian. I'm from Sydney, so this is the ANU alumni. The feeling here is it's electric. We can finally celebrate them graduating. So I was walking down a circular key to our Alton house today and I saw everyone dressed in regalia and it just looked, it completely reminded me when I graduated well in ANU and it's such a pity that we get to see if we're having a page in Shanghai, but when I was there, the community was fantastic as well. So everyone's been kind of paced. I believe everyone, later on, will do in the future. The city of Sydney is a fantastic place to start your career and if it's something that you can't do, you can always pursue your creative industries as well. So it's a lot of time for you to think about what you want to do that you actually want to pursue for the rest of your life. It's been a huge cheer from Sydney again. We look forward to seeing more alumni do amazing things. Back to you, Brian. Thank you so much, JJ. It does look like you're having a great time and pretty flashed there. And we'll have a chance to celebrate out. Maybe not quite fancy of tables here, but a good chance to have fun here. Going, we're next going to go to Melbourne. We have Tina Cueck, our Madjewits, Melbourne graduates. Tina, great to see you. We're in Melbourne and to be honest, we're just really happy to be out of lockdown and to be out and actually be able to meet in person, aren't we? Are we happy? Are we happy? One second. I feel like we can do a little bit better than that. We practice this, guys. Come on. Are we happy? There you go, Sydney. I think we did a little bit better than that. I've been talking to all the graduates here. Everyone's really excited. I've also got Ben and Sam here. Do you want to come say hello? Absolutely. Hi, Ben. What did you guys study? So I studied political science. And I started new international relations. Are you excited? What have you got planned? I don't really know. We're just going to celebrate with everyone here. Yeah. It's obviously a little bit different from everyone being together in Canberra. Yeah. It's good to have an opportunity, nonetheless, to do it in our own way and be here in Melbourne with everyone. So are we going to have the best party or what? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Are we going to have the best party or what? Thanks, Ben. Thank you. Thank you, Tina. It's great to see the masks out in force. And of course, we know that our friends in Melbourne have had one of the most challenging experiences here in Australia. And it's great to see you all together. We have the chance to now go back to Beijing where Mu and Grace, I think, are waiting for us. Hopefully we're up and ready to go. So let's try. There we go. Hi, Mu and Grace. And welcome. I have 50 exciting graduates in Beijing. Johnny, you guys. OK. So yes, this is one of the beautiful things of trying to do these things internationally. But it's great to see Mu and Grace and all our graduates there in Beijing. And of course, we also had a chance to see our graduates out in force in Shanghai. And one of the things that we'll really continue to work on is making sure that in the coming year, we're able to bring all of our students from wherever they are in the world back here to Canberra, because it's such an important part, of course, of what a degree is here in Australia. So I think we're now going to have a chance where if I reflect, we have all been through what has just been an enormously challenging year. And it is the most challenging year of my life. And let's hope the challenges each of us have faced in 2020 will not be surpassed in the future. While it is easy to bemoan the fact that you have finished your degree in a year of such global uncertainty, remember the whole world has experienced upheaval and change. You're not alone. COVID-19 has truly impacted the entire planet. But you are lucky. Your A and U degree will provide an even greater level of support for your future aspirations. Attending one of the world's great universities is an experience many wish they could have had, but you have actually lived. In 2020, we've heard a lot about facts and interpretations of the truth. But your degree has not been about rote learning. It has been about understanding and discovering the truth. It's been about learning and testing new ideas and being open to perspectives that differ to your own. These are the skills that most of the world has not been given the opportunity to develop. I think of this ability is of being your superpower in the years coming, a power that allows you to look at the world and understand. Understand what is happening, how things work and how to use this knowledge to make the world a better place. In addition to what you've learned in the classroom, under the guidance of some of the world's most distinguished experts and from support of your fellow students here today, you'll have made friends and created connections that will serve you for the rest of your lives. Graduation is a time to reflect. It's a time to reflect on what you've achieved and for some of you on what you have sacrificed to gain your qualification. But it's also a time to acknowledge and thank the people around you who have helped you up to this point. Finally, your graduation is a time to look ahead and to think about what you do next. Now not everyone has a roadmap for their life on the day they graduate, on the day they graduate. I know I sure didn't. But for those of you who think you know what comes next, be a trailblazer in your own right. But be prepared to change course. And for those who don't know yet, I encourage you to think about what excites you, what drives you and what it is exactly you want to do in the world. Don't be a passenger in your own life. Take control and make a difference. Set your path and charge forward. I know it can sound intimidating and daunting to make a difference in the world, but what I have learned in the 32 years since I graduated with my first degree is that making a difference doesn't just happen. It takes time. It takes persistence. And it takes passion. But I have found in our community when our graduates set their mind to it and they have the benefit of the degree, the A and U degree you all have got now, what our graduates are able to achieve is truly extraordinary. So if you take one piece of advice from me, it is to think about the world you are in and how you want to change it. And for many people this might just be doing a job very well that adds value to the world. But it could be starting a new company or discovering something fundamental. Things along the way will probably not go to plan, but the journey will be rich and it will bring a host of new ideas and opportunities for you to change the world. Do your part to change the world for better and you'll never know if it will be a big change or a small one until after it happens. But you are in the driver's seat to make change happen. And just remember, someone's got to do it and the world is looking to you. And as you journey through life, please keep in touch. We want to know where you're going, what you're doing, what your passions are and we want to see you back on campus. We have alumni as you've seen based all around the world and even with COVID restrictions we continue to bring our alumni together and we will continue to do so in the years ahead. As a new member of our alumni community, you can help connect our current students or future students or meet fellow alumni who graduated before you. Help everyone help themselves. Everyone needs help to achieve their goals. So keep working as a community. Support one another and help each other. As a community, we can make the world a better place and as individuals we can make and support change by working with each other. Congratulations again to our graduates of 2020 and I now would like to hand over to our Chancellor, live in Perch. Perth, sorry, fresh out of lockdown. Great to see you Chancellor, over to you. Graduates, their families and friends. Our distinguished colleagues and guests. I am joining you from Western Australia, on the lands of the Wadjuk people of the Nungar Nation. And I thank Aunty Matilda and Paul Howells for their gracious and warm welcome to country. I'm actually in the new Australian National University office here in Perth. And so I welcome you all to the 2021 ANU Grand Graduation Celebration. I'm joined by our Pro Chancellor, Naomi Flutter, at a COVID safe distance. And she is one of our distinguished alumni. We were hoping to have an in-person celebration here in Perth for all our graduates across Western Australia. But last week's lockdown made it rather impossible to achieve, but we'll party some other time. As Chancellor of the Australian National University, I'm delighted that with the help of technology that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, I have this opportunity to congratulate you all on this extraordinary achievement of graduating from university. I also take the opportunity to acknowledge former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Therese Rain who will be joining us from Brisbane, both distinguished alumni of our university. The Australian National University was established 75 years ago as Australia and the world emerged from the dark days of the Second World War. We were established by an act of the federal parliament. We are the only university to be created under a Commonwealth statute. And our nation at that time recognised that we needed a university to be at the forefront of research, discovery and education to tackle the challenges facing Australia and our region at that time. And over the past 75 years we've sought to achieve that mission. In the wake of this global pandemic we reminded again of our mission and we commit anew to being at the forefront of research, discovery and education and providing the highest quality educational experience to the best and brightest students who are able to take up the opportunity of studying at the Australian National University. Your degree is a key to your future. You will have remarkable opportunities. There will be career options and hopefully you'll leverage the knowledge gained from your studies and the experience you've had at university to contribute to the betterment of our community and our world. Graduates from ANU have unlimited potential. Whether you forge a career in government or politics, business, industry, the not-for-profit sector, the charitable sector, research, the professions. You will have opportunities to make a difference and perhaps in those joining us today there'll be another future Prime Minister, another Nobel Laureate, a Chief Justice, world leaders and more. This is an extraordinary milestone and you have every reason to be very proud of what you've achieved. For some of you, you may be the first in your family or in your community to graduate from university and you'll be paving the way for others to follow in your footsteps. All of you have graduated in the midst of a global pandemic and we salute your courage, your resilience and your strength. Finally, may I thank and acknowledge your family members, your friends and the academic staff and support network at ANU for every student requires that support from those who care about you. This is a remarkable day for you. Never forget this feeling of achievement and we wish you every success in your future career and your life ahead and as the Vice Chancellor said please stay in touch with the alumni of this great university. Back to you Vice Chancellor. Thank you Julie and Chancellor it is a true privilege to be able to work with you even if it has been an amazingly challenging year. I'm very sorry that we have not been able to bring the students together in Perth but I have promised Julie and the students of Perth that we will soon as things open up have a chance to go and celebrate in style in the west of the country. Now we're going to move east and a little north to the sunny climates of Brisbane, our graduate party in Brisbane. Close friends of ANU, the honourable Kevin Rudd and Therese Rain are hosting our Queensland reception in Brisbane live from the Emporium Hotel. Kevin Rudd served as our 26th Prime Minister of Australia working on his impressive career path. He did a Bachelor of Asia studies here at ANU and graduated with honours in 1981. Therese Rain is an entrepreneur, mental health and human rights advocate and founder of a very successful and amazing company, India's Limited. She studied a Bachelor of Arts with honours in psychology, a master in psychology, also graduated in 1981 and of course they have a great story, a story of love as they actually both met here at ANU. So Kevin and Therese, I am so pleased to have you with us today and all of our graduates in Brisbane, over to you both. Thank you very much Brian and greetings from the People's Republic of Queensland. We're a restrained lot up here. Greetings also to Julie B and thank you for the work you're doing as Chancellor. Brian for your great work as Vice Chancellor and what has been an appalling year for all universities in Australia and to all of your staff and faculty for the great job that they've been doing and also from Therese and myself greetings to all of you joining us from Melbourne greetings to all of you joining us from Sydney, greetings to all of you joining us from Beijing and greetings also to those joining us from Shanghai and for those reasons I've been asked to do a little bit of both a bit of English, a bit of Chinese translated into Queensland so there'll be three languages on display so so we are we are so I'd like to begin just by congratulating all of you who are graduates from 2020 so I'd like to begin just by congratulating all of you who are graduates from 2020 so I'd like to begin just by congratulating all of you who are graduates from 2020 so I'd like to begin just by congratulating all of you who are graduating and I extend our personal congratulations and for our Chinese friends in particular we'd like to extend to you the season's greetings for the spring festival Happy Chinese New Year and may all your wishes come true for those of you joining us today from Beijing and Shanghai 四十年前,太太和我我们在澳洲国立大学毕业了。 Forty years ago this year, my wife Theresa and I graduated from the ANU. 澳洲国立大学给我们带来的教育经验是第一流的。 The university experience that we got from the Australian National University was absolutely first class. 我们要表达我们四人的感谢。 因为对我们未来的生涯带来很大的一种贡献。 So the contribution which this education has given both of us in terms of our future careers has been also first class. 我记得,我从澳洲国立大学毕业的时候, 它是1981年,也是历史新的一年。 只要历史时间是什么呢? 我不认为我毕业了,我开玩笑。 但是当做一个毕业生,实在来讲是一个很大的日子。 So 40 years ago in 1981, I remember attending a graduation ceremony at the Llewellyn Hall of the Australian National University. And since that time, we've been through a lot. The foundations of that experience have indeed been important for the future. 从中国的经验来讲,81年也很重要的一年,这是中国改革开放的开始。 所以我在澳洲国立大学,我读书的时候,我特别研究中国现代历史,中国现代政治,中国现代经济等等. And what I remember most about being at the ANU was as a student of Chinese studying contemporary Chinese politics, contemporary Chinese economics, and again contemporary Chinese history in a period of extraordinary change in China, including the beginning of the period of opening up and reform, which had begun under Deng Xiaoping. 我做出了一个决定,当做一个汉学家,为什么呢,到澳洲国立大学读书? 因为澳洲国立大学对于汉学家的经验很丰富,我们的老师都是第一流的, 语言方面的很棒,那个历史方面的很棒,画画方面的也很棒,中国传统艺术方面的也很棒. And so why did I choose to go to the ANU to study Chinese? Because it was the best university in Australia to do that. I was able to have the best access to the best teachers in language, in history, in culture, in philosophy, and in Chinese aesthetics. And so for me, that created the foundations for my subsequent professional life. 最后呢, I was also able to achieve something else at the Australian National University. 最后呢,我在澳大利亚国立大学也找到了一个很大的一种礼物,一如很大的其他的贡献,就是我跟太太见面了. And so also at the ANU, apart from all the knowledge I picked up at the Department of Chinese and the Faculty of Asian Studies, I also managed to pick up this lady as well. And that was far more important. 四十年前,我毕业了,也结婚了,也进入了澳洲的外交部,三个生涯方面的很重要的步骤. So in 1981, there were three big steps in our lives together. One, graduated from the ANU. Two, entered the Australian Foreign Service. And three, got married to this lady here, who's been thinking about it ever since. Finally, to all of our friends who are listening from around China and around Australia. As the Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor said before, this world has got a massive load of problems. But you have got a first class education to equip you with the skills necessary to be part of the solution and not just part of the chorus of complaint. 最后呢,我说几句话,那就是这样子,当然现在那个全世界我们面临的问题,挑战很厉害呢. 那个国际性的那个政治,经济,文化,以及那个气候变化方面的挑战也很厉害呢. 但是从这个大学毕业了,你们拿到的那个学者方面的经验, 您的智慧能够帮你们的忙对于全世界做出很大的一个独一为二的一个贡献. And so with that, I would thank you so much for choosing the Australian National University to study. Wish you well for your personal futures, and then introduce you to someone far more important for today's occasion, Therese Rain, fellow graduate. How about you Therese? So today is not a day where you get a piece of paper. Today is a day where you reflect as I remember doing in 1981 on the learning, the curiosity, pushing through the challenges and the, oh do I want to keep doing this? Pushing through the confusion and the complexity and being intensely still interested in asking questions. Today is a day when you reflect on your resilience, your adaptation ability, through what is unprecedented in terms of the global pandemic. And as you think back on all the friends you've made and on all your capabilities, because you have a wonderful future ahead of you, and you created a wonderful base for both Kevin and I, obviously in terms of our relationship. But also in terms of knowledge and confidence and knowing that we didn't know it all and that we had to keep asking questions and keep being interested in the world. There are so many things for us to chat still to solve in this world. We know you have the great challenge of climate change. We know we still haven't got this pandemic under control. We know we still have to solve so many issues in terms of power, sustainability, social equity. There is so much to do. And today you reflect on your capability, on your resilience, on your strength and what you can contribute to the future of the world. You reflect on your relationships and of course the families that have supported you and friends that have supported you through this really hard last year of your degree. Congratulations. It's wonderful to be here. And I look forward to hearing about all the wonderful things that you as ANU alumni achieve in the future. Thank you. Well, thank you Kevin and Therese. It is great to have you on board and once again getting out your robes, your ANU robes. It's good to see those are getting another use. Really appreciate the fact that you've been able to take under the wing our graduates up in Brisbane and I'm sure it's a special occasion up there and I look forward to coming up to Brisbane and of course seeing you and all of our graduates up there as part of the upcoming festivities of the rest of the year. So I now want to introduce our keynote speaker for grand graduation, graduate Sophia Hamlin-Long. Sophia is an ANU alumna and holds a Bachelor of International Business with first class honors. She is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Mineral Carbonation International an Australian based research engineering company. Sophia is also a carbon utilization technologist, circular economy specialist, science and business communicator, University of Sydney Business School lecturer and a member of the ACT Climate Change Council. It is great to have you back on campus Sophia and thank you for being with us today. So please join me all in welcoming Sophia Hamlin-Long. Congratulations to the graduating class of 2020. Well, what a ride it has been for you. Maybe give yourselves a round of applause. There are so many challenging, exciting problems to solve in the world. Today you have your fresh degrees. May you use them for good to create a positive impact. The energy in this room is electric and it's such an exciting time. Today I'm going to share with you a little bit about my time at ANU, almost seven years of my life, and share some insights into how this time shaped my career developing climate change technology. Choosing ANU was a profoundly important life decision for me. I grew up in far North Queensland in an 800 person fishing village on the Great Barrier Reef. I for many years lived with my mother, auntie and grandfather in a caravan. We fished for our own fish, grew what we could in the garden and lived a very community focused life. And even though we didn't have much money, we lived a very rich life indeed. I went to public schools and definitely benefited from government assistance in order to afford to go and live at university. The choice to go to ANU was a big one. It's 3,000 kilometres almost away from my home, expensive to fly and Canberra was a huge contrast to the tropics, both culturally and weather wise. I was nervous that I would be different and in many ways I was, but I found my community here at ANU. I was able to study macroeconomics, international relations, economic history and statistics. The course content opened up my mind to worlds I hadn't imagined. At the Bruce Hall dining hall, I was able to discuss complex world problems with people from very different backgrounds and philosophies. I was forced to find common ground and create mutual respect. It was unbelievably powerful. We had high tables and veletes where we got to have conversations with intellectual giants like Goff Whitlam, Michael Kirby and Bill Packard. Even though I was undeniably junior to those men, they all listened and treated me with respect and I built up a little bit more confidence each time to listen and to share my ideas too. In my honours year, I was able to hone my skills at assessing the academic rigor of research papers that underpin much of our lives. Understanding statistics, theoretical underpinnings and frameworks gave me the tools to independently assess evidence and challenge it too. My research looked at corporate social responsibility. I've always been interested in the intersection of corporate profits and investment in environmental and social causes. I feel strongly that businesses have a responsibility to their communities and to society to give back and to contribute. I even spent some time here in a PhD programme at the ANU developing and delving into this issue. But ultimately I chose to leave to help to start the company that I'm working for now. My horizons had broadened from ANU and I felt that I had left equipped to contribute real original ideas and to connect complex and simple ideas. It was time to tackle climate change. At Mineral Carbonation International, or MCI, we are building a carbon platform that transforms CO2 into products. Put simply, we turn a gas into a solid and embed it in all kinds of materials like cements, concretes, plasterboards and everyday products. As simple as it sounds, you also know it's very complex. Our team is comprised of chemical engineers, geologists, process engineers, research commercialization specialists, IPs lawyers, communicators and advocates. As our world races towards net zero, we need to have a plan for the emissions that happen in the transition as well as a plan for negative emissions in the future. Right now, if we captured all of the emissions from industry in the world, we wouldn't have enough markets or places to store or use them. We now observe that there is a race to net zero. The world is crying out for high quality permanent carbon offsets. At MCI, we have a plan and it's a bold one to lock away 1 billion tonnes of CO2 into products every year by the year 2035. We will do this profitably and without the need for a price on carbon. And we're off and running. About a year ago, I sat on a panel at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos alongside CEOs of oil, gas, cement and steel companies as well as heads of state of large nations. We discussed the opportunities for creating new industries out of carbon dioxide and their pledges to achieve net zero by 2050. It was daunting at first. I was the only person in the room under 40 and the only person who looked like me. My experience at ANU had certainly guided me towards choosing to bravely step up, share, challenge and connect. I told the room that I had a special interest in building good and robust jobs and industries of the future. As the only person in the room who would still be working in 2050, I called upon them to consider what our jobs would look like in a net zero future world. Last year, stepping into Davos, I was reminded about my time at ANU, meeting people who felt so big to me when I was reading about them in textbooks. I remembered the intellectual generosity and rapport from sharing ideas. I got to shake hands and discuss ideas with Professor Joseph Stiglitz, whose papers on inequality I poured over at my time at ANU. I sat with Christine Lagarde and discussed her leadership of the IMF and the European Central Bank and wondered how many people she had lifted out of poverty through her policy decisions. Cristiana Figueres, former leader of the UNFCCC and mastermind behind the Paris Climate Accord, discussed over coffee with me how she was able to create one of the largest climate agreements in history. Just like the Bruce Hall High Tables, these inspirational leaders were considerate and curious. And allowed me to share my own ideas with them in a respectful space. In order to mitigate climate change, we need a deep understanding about the earth sciences, meteorology, economics, social science, psychology, systems, design, art and health sciences. And the interaction of all of these things at once, not to mention international relations and politics. Collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas is crucial if we are to address this urgent issue. In the past year, MCI's vision has been shared in the New York Times, Time Magazine, the Australian and the World Economic Forum's agenda. I've been on Q&A and done a TED Talk, written articles about the circular carbon economy and I feel there is momentum gaining in this area. The good news is that climate scientists and their warnings are starting to be echoed and listened to by world leaders and the global business community. We have the Paris Agreement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and since the US rejoined the Paris Agreement, around 70% of the world's GDP has committed to net zero by 2050. It's heartening to see large Australian companies committing to net zero targets and showing leadership, as well as the Business Council of Australia. Our own ANU was also leading the way with the below zero strategy being formulated and it's one of the most ambitious climate action targets I've seen. New technologies to power our development and transition are being developed. Global trade agreements are influencing decisions and now it's clear that the backbone of our future prosperity is not going to be in fossil fuels. In conclusion, the problems of today aren't necessarily going to be the problems of tomorrow. Ensuring that you're flexible and creative about the way you apply your knowledge into new areas is key. Each and every person sitting here today has a fresh degree from the Australian National University, a top institution. You now have the qualification. How may you make brave decisions, collaborate, challenge and connect? This graduation is unlike any other. You've all been tested for agility and strength and made it out the other side. There are thousands of voices with different perspectives right here in the space and in the other locations telecast today. I'd like to formally welcome you to a community that I'm a part of, the ANU alumni community. You will be the next world leaders, CEOs and heads of NGOs. Your peers will be extremely important mentors and friends. May you approach each other with intellectual integrity, respect and robustness. There are problems that we don't know about yet and with ways of thinking and methods that haven't even been invented yet. Your careers may be linear and they may meander and that's okay. It's important to remember that your perspective and thoughts are worth sharing and developing. May you approach this next chapter of your life with ambition and bravery. Thank you Sophia and it's great. I think for our graduates today to hear your story, I promise you when you finished your degree, not that long ago, that you were not thinking that you would be in the World Economic Forum and Davos meeting the world leaders and telling them how to decarbonize the world and showing the way. We of course at ANU are looking at going to those below zero targets and we are going to need the technology that you are developing and that we are working with colleagues across Australia to do. I think you have shown that you were prepared to start out and then change direction and I think our graduates today should take pause and realize that you are like Sophia was not that long ago and you will have opportunities one way or another that are similar to what Sophia has and of course you are just part way on your journey with hopefully the best yet to come. I was in Davos with you and I too got to meet some of those people and I was just as excited as you were actually when my last airline trip was on that trip. So, thank you once again and let me once again say to our graduates congratulations. For those of us, for those of you joining us online please enjoy this special time with your family and friends and your fellow students who you are around for our graduates and hosts celebrating across Australia and China please continue to mingle, enjoy some canapes and start plotting how you're going to go out and change the world. I'd like to invite our graduates and staff here today in Llewellyn Hall to join me in the foyers for our reception. As the stage party processes out of the hall I encourage our graduates, proud parents, partners and friends who are watching in support to watch our live stream to see our hard-working graduates name scroll by on the screen. So please join me in one more round of applause for our class of 2020.