 Right, right to go. Okay, good morning, everyone. My name is Professor Mark Howden. I'm the director of the ANU Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions. It's an absolute pleasure to have you all here this morning for this event with the her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince Daniel. And they're just about to arrive, so if you could all be upstanding for the arrival. If you could be seated. And we have to start with some introductory remarks by our famous Vice Chancellor, Brian Schmidt, who is well known to the Swedish Royal Family through, amongst other things, the award of his Nobel Prize, Brian. Good morning, everyone. And on behalf of the Australian National University, I am delighted to welcome you all to this morning's panel discussion. As is Australian custom, I begin by acknowledging and celebrating the first Australians on whose traditional lands we meet and I pay my respects to elders past and present. The Ngunnawal Nambri people have been here for more than 20,000 years, using Cambri where we meet today as their meeting place. Your Royal Highness, it gives me immense pleasure to welcome you to Australia's National University. I also extend my welcome to other members of the Swedish government, along with staff, students from our campus, and of course, Prince Daniel, welcome as well. I first met her Royal Highness in 2011 when I received the Nobel Prize. I remember walking down the stairs together, being deeply intimidated by the ceremony proceedings and the strobing flashes that were trying to get a picture, not of me, but of her Royal Highness. A&U, as Australia's only national university, has a unique role. We are a research intensive campus which provides a world-class education for our students who come from over 100 nations. Our remit here as the National University is to undertake research that benefits all Australians and undeniably, climate change is one of the most pressing challenges to humanity's existence. For many years, A&U has been recognized globally for our leading work in climate and energy research, including areas of policy, economics, social psychology, governance, and underlying technologies. Now there have been long-standing links between A&U and Sweden. In last fortnight, as everyone here will know, the founding director of the A&U Climate Institute, Professor Will Steffen passed away. He was a fierce advocate of climate change action and also shared a connection to Sweden which is very deep with Stockholm University and the Volvo Prize Foundation. He will be missed. And I would also say he is probably irreplaceable. In 2021, we launched the A&U Institute for Climate, Energy, and Disaster Solutions, of which Professor Mark Houdin, who is moderating today's panel, is the director. The institute brings together over 570 researchers from across the university to find solutions across disciplines. And today's panel will focus on electrification. The data is clear. Although electrification has reduced national greenhouse gas emissions by about 7% to date, this is well below its potential. We need to increase electrification exponentially to meet the Paris Agreement targets and we need to do it quickly, ethically, and economically. Here in Australia, we have tremendous opportunity to cut greenhouse gas emissions through electrification with renewable energy. Whilst currently at an early stage electrification is accelerating rapidly and is expected by 2030, over 80% of Australia's power will be renewable. You'll be glad to know that the room that you're in is entirely renewable, as is the entire ACT. That green electricity will increasingly power Australia's transport and industrial systems and our homes. We have initiatives like the A&U Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program, which Associate Professor Marni Shah, who joins our panel, will be able to discuss further. We also have academics looking at how we can generate green steel. This is a specialty of Sweden. And importantly, we have academics researching critical raw materials and how we can both explore for and extract these, meeting the growing global demand again in a carbon neutral way. Now I'm gonna hand back to Mark Houdin in a moment, but before I do, I do wanna thank and acknowledge the work across A&U and the Swedish Embassy to bring this event together. It is a great example of the intersection of academia, government, and international diplomacy and people working together to address climate change, and we need more of it. Thank you all, and Mark, back to you. Thank you Vice Chancellor. And we have some words, I think, from the Crown Princess, is that right? Vice Chancellor, noble laureates, Excellencies, Minister, Assistant Secretary, members of the university faculty, students, ladies, and gentlemen. I would like to start by acknowledging the Ngunnaval people, the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today. I pay my respect to their elders, past, present, and emerging. My husband and I are delighted to be visiting Australia and to be here with you today. We have received a very warm welcome and have already had the chance to see a little glimpse of your country's breathtaking beauty. Yesterday, we visited Namaji National Park and were absolutely blown away by the pristine bushland and the sweeping grasslands and the mountains. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, not least to us coming from a wintry Sweden. During our visit here, during our visit, we were, of course, reminded of the absolutely terrible images of the bushfires from 2020. I remember well that the fires were a topic of discussion with our children around the dinner table in Stockholm and I believe in many other countries around the globe as well. In fact, these bushfires were an eye-opener for many people that climate change is real. Hearing the stories from the local fire brigade yesterday in the National Park was truly moving and at the same time shocking. In the 2020 fire, 80% of the National Park was burnt. The bushfires, the bushfire was totally changed the landscape in many ways and threatened native animals and including threatened species and ecological communities. Ladies and gentlemen, loss of biodiversity is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. Extinction of animals, plants and other organisms threaten life support systems on which we depend like food, fresh air and clean water. Climate change affects the planet itself as well as us who live there, humans and animals alike. More recently, we have seen the terrible floods in New Zealand and Pakistan and simultaneously droughts in large parts of eastern Africa. Glaciers are melting and small island states fear that rising sea level will eliminate their existence. Climate change is real and it impacts us all here and now. So here and now is a good place and time for a deliberation about things that can be done to mitigate the situation. Vice Chancellor, I thank you and the Australian National University for hosting this seminar on electrification and energy security. The Australian National University is widely known for its cutting edge research also in the fields of climate change and energy. And I know that Australia, I know Australia to be a country with great potential for green transformation, not least within the field of energy. I am very happy to see representatives from both government and industry. The nexus between science, policy and industry is key. Energy and electricity make up the foundation of any modern society. Ensuring access to clean, constant and affordable energy is one of the most important tasks at hand. Success in the green transition in the energy sector is a priority for policy makers across the globe. To counter climate change and mitigate its consequences, we need to address the ways in which we construct our energy systems. We need to ensure that our energy infrastructure is fit for the world of today and tomorrow. We need to optimize use of the resources we have. That way we can strengthen our response, that way we can also increase the security and resilience of our societies. We are at a junction that requires us to find solutions for transforming the way we produce and consume energy. I am proud to say that we have a large number of Swedish companies and research institutes working toward this end. They are at the forefront, leading the way in developing clean and competitive energy solutions. I also know that their interest is great in collaborating with Australian partners and contribute to Australia's energy projects. I hope that today's seminar can be a stepping stone towards enhancing this collaboration. I am certain that the exchange between our countries, between our governments, our research institutions, people to people and business to business will benefit the competitiveness of both our countries and the world at large. We are facing that global challenge together and we will master them through collaboration. I look forward to listening to today's discussions. Thank you. Thank you very much, Your Royal Highness, for those words. And it just illustrates, I think, the strength of the bonds and the commonality of the pathways which our two countries are going down and the need to work together to solve these global challenges. So how are we going to run this next session? We've got timelines here, so what we're going to have is a fairly brief panel session. So I'm going to introduce the panel members in a second, followed by a Q&A after some prepared questions. So just to introduce the panel members, initially, Johan, that's Johan for Shell, is the Swedish Minister for International Development, Corporation and Foreign Trade, if you can come up and grab a seat. Next we have Martin Merrick, who's the President and CEO of Volvo Australia, welcome. Then we have Associate Professor Marnie Shaw, who's from the ANU School of Engineering and she's the research lead at the ANU's Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program. Welcome, Marnie. And we also have Matt Ryan, who's the Assistant Secretary of the Transport Branch at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water. Welcome, Matt. So you can see that sitting up here, we've actually got a really interesting array of people coming from government, from industry, from research. And that's both governments from Australia and Sweden. And so hopefully we can have a lively panel discussion here. So the first question goes to Minister for Shell. In what way can Swedish industry and innovation contribute to the global energy transition? Well, thank you for that question and thank you for the possibility to be here today. I think there are numerous possibilities. I believe both Sweden and Australia to be very like-minded countries when it comes to these questions. We have been in Sweden for many years, been like at the forefront of the green transition. I think there also, I know that there is a growing discussion also here in Australia and we of course very much welcome that. Sweden and Australia have been trading with each other for almost 200 years and I'm very pleased to say that today we have many Swedish companies. Especially in the green transition, of course. We have Skania, we have Volvo, we have Ericsson, Epiroc, and many of them are focusing mainly on, or they're focusing on the green transition. So I think there are great possibilities here, not only for Swedish companies coming to Australia and investing here, but the great thing with international trade is that it also goes the other way around. There is also an interest for many Australian companies doing the green transition in Sweden and helping us. So there is a great potential here and we are from the European Union's perspective also putting a lot of focus for having finally that free trade agreement, which could also be a cornerstone here when it comes to enabling the green transition. Thank you, Minister, and I think there's some really great suggestions there perhaps to follow up from people at ANU. So Martin, so what does Volvo see the trajectory to e-vehicles and what role does Volvo play on this? Noting that you actually have an example just on campus, just outside this building of where you're going. Absolutely, like Minister for Shell, delighted to be here. As you can hear, it's not an Aussie accent, it's a Scottish accent, so we have a Scosé with a Swedish company here in Australia. By 2030, Volvo Group, we see that all the trucks, buses, construction equipment, what we sell globally will be about 35% electric. If we take Volvo trucks specifically, by 2030, 50% of what we sell globally will be electric. And of course, we are committed to the Paris Agreement. Our targets have been ratified by the SBTI, which means that by 2040, all our solutions will be fossil free. That will be battery electric vehicles, also fuel cell electric vehicles and internal combustion engine, particularly in Australia, will run in biofuels, biogas, and maybe even hydrogen, and internal combustion engine. Of course, as discussed, collaboration, we can't decarbonise the sector on our own, so we believe that partnership is a new leadership, so globally we have some really key partnerships. We were a founding member of the First Movers Coalition. We have partnerships with our competitors in Europe. We have Tratton Group in Daimler, where we're working together to accelerate the electric infrastructure for recharging, so we anticipate 1700 plus charging points to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. And here in Australia, we've been building trucks here for 50 years. We celebrated our anniversary last year in Waco, and we intend to build battery electric vehicles here within the next three to four years. Currently, our full Volvo truck range is battery electric vehicle. We have medium duty here. Delighted to say that in December, we announced the world's largest order for Volvo medium duty electric vehicles here in Australia. Heavy duty on the other hand, unfortunately, we can't bring them to Australia right now because of legislation, so I urge academia, government, industry to collaborate, to accelerate legislation change, and we can then accelerate the adoption rate of battery electric vehicles. So we are on the journey, and we have the products here today, and very excited about the transition to a greener future. Thanks, Martin. It's really encouraging to hear the involvement of Volvo. Australia, as you probably know, is well behind other countries in terms of EV adoption, but we are accelerating their adoption, and the ACT is leading that. And so I think as of last year, I think it was 20% of vehicles sold in the ACT were electric vehicles, which was more than twice the national average, so we're a hotspot for EV adoption here in the ACT. Marnie, can you tell us a little bit about what your battery grid integration program is doing in terms of vehicle integration into the grid, and particularly the pilot program you've got with the ACT government? Sure, thanks, Mark. Good morning, everyone. So in our program, we are really focused on developing the technology that we need to support electrification of the grid. And what's important to think about is that we have to be mindful that the relationship between the energy system and people is changing. We're moving to a system that's much more decentralized and with people at the centre. So that means the technology looks a bit different if you didn't have people in the picture. So how do we do that in our program? So we have engineers, we have computer scientists working very closely together with social scientists right here at the INU, in our engineering school. So I see some students in the audience and encourage you to think about a career in engineering or social science because we need lots of you to help us work on this problem. So the vehicle-degrid program that you mentioned, Mark, is a really good example of that. Vehicle-degrid is a new technology which allows us to use EVs to inject power into the grid for the rare times when we need that grid support. So for things like providing frequency support for the grid, providing backup power, I heard of a really nice example the other day in the city of Newcastle where we have fire trucks that are electrified that can go out to disaster situations like bushfire or flooding and provide that backup power for those communities. So things like that, that's what vehicle-degrid is used for. The trial here at the INU, which is a partnership with ACT government, has 51 Nissan LEAF electric vehicles and it's an Australian first and trialing this technology, looking at the kit in the lab, testing it out, also trying to understand what the people side of this technology, what do people want, what do people expect of this technology. So that's really important. We're trying to understand the benefits, the barriers and so on. So it's important work that needs to be done. It has challenges. Even in countries that have very high penetration of EV, vehicle-degrid rates are still quite low. So we need to address what are the issues, develop the market opportunities and so on to make this really a viable technology. Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Martin. And I think your point that we need engineers who also understand social science and vice versa is actually really important and that's one of the areas where I think we do need to be considering. How do we actually have a workforce which is appropriately skilled for the jobs of the future? So Matt, Australia has significant challenges ahead in terms of accelerating electrification to meet the ambitious goals of the new government. That's a 43% reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. So transport is about 17% of our emissions profile is actually a big contributor to that, our emissions and we need to deal with that. So what do you think we can learn from Sweden in terms of that? Thanks, Mark. And just quickly, apologies from the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Minister Bohen. He would have loved to have been here today and the Assistant Minister as well, Parliament sitting at the moment. So there's quite a bit going on but there is a silver lining, you've got me instead. So hopefully that's not too bad. I'll use a few stats so hopefully that won't throw you off. So transport emissions in Australia, about 100 million tonnes CO2 equivalent. Our latest projections for 2035 that we did at the end of last year had it moving up to number one place. So taking over some of the other sectors in terms of the projection. So it's a big part of our economy transport and it's something that needs to be looked at very closely in front of government's mind at the moment. We recently went consulting about what we needed to do in Australia. When you compare us to Sweden, we're well behind in terms of rates of uptake. When we talked to stakeholders in Australia but overseas as well, we had many people from overseas lending information from their experiences, including Sweden, about how we could drive the demand, how we could decrease the supply and how we can get the infrastructure we need. Because this is a different world. It's a new way of going about transport. A couple of the things that popped to my mind is certainly our uptake rates very low. So it's around 3% of new car sales, electric vehicles. So 3% when you look at Sweden, they're nearing 50%. So quite a way to go. So looking at some of the systems they used over there, the incentives and you'll see some of the incentives that are coming out from state and territory governments at the moment around rebates, stent duty concessions, registration free for a couple of years, I think they have here in Canberra, to drive the uptake. So incentives, Sweden certainly, use those other countries has and you can see Australia starting to do that. And that's really important because there is a premium at the moment for battery electric vehicles, particularly at that entry level where most people want to encourage to take them up when they're making a choice to buy a new car. So that's really important. Probably the only other thing that's really important to touch on is the infrastructure. Australia is not quite ready. You'll hear there's lots of charging stations being rolled out, but a few numbers again. We've got I think around about 5,000 public charging points in Australia at the moment, lots of plans to roll out a lot more. To give you an idea, I think Sweden's somewhere around 16,000 to 17,000 charging points. So the infrastructure to keep up with the uptake is just as important. And we can learn from Sweden. They've got some remote and regional areas. They've got some really cold places. We've got some really hot places. Charging infrastructure obviously in those areas will not all be the same. So learning from others like Sweden and what they've done there would be very valuable for Australia and is valuable for Australia. Thanks, Matt. Just moving back to Minister Forsshell. So what we've seen over the last year is our energy security both in the EU and globally is not as secure as we thought. And so we need to I think reconfigure some of our ideas in relation to this. So what do you, have you got any insights in terms of the role of international trade and international collaboration to enhance energy security? Thank you very much. And that is actually a question that we are trying to deal with in Europe. And as you are aware of, Russia's unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine has put focus on these questions. And being very honest here, I think at least some countries in Europe have a very difficult situation right now. And they are facing a dependency on Russia when it comes to imports of gas and fossil fuels. And that is of course problematic. Some of the countries in the European Union have ended up facing all these dependencies and it really underlines the importance of having free trade flows, making sure that you can trade freely with partners and not with countries that you don't want to become dependent off. Germany is one example and there are also other countries in European Union right now having a very difficult time. And at the same time, you will also have this energy crisis and high inflation and being dependent on Russia. So this is very problematic and we are trying to deal with this from many different aspects. Of course, we will need to invest even more when it comes to the green transition, solar, wind, power. We are also looking at next generation of nuclear. At the same time, having more of open trade is of great importance to us. I believe the whole Indo-Pacific region here is high on our agenda, not only Sweden's agenda, but the whole of European Union. And I think that also goes the other way around. I mean, I hope that having this free trade agreement between Australia and European Union would also enable Australia to trade more freely with a huge market. I mean, 27 different countries in the whole of Europe is a huge possibility for many Australian countries and also providing Australia with a possibility of not becoming dependent on countries that don't share the same fundamental values when it comes to democracy and freedom of speech, et cetera. So I believe, to summarize, in today's world, trade is not only about figures in economic growth and job. It is also about security. And that is what we are facing in Europe right now and this is also our focus for the future. We will try to merge these two things into one and find synergies. Thanks very much for that. And I think it does highlight that when you look at Europe, it's not just what's going on with Ukraine, but the super hot summer actually resulted in, for example, in France shutting down half of its nuclear power fleet. And so you can get multiplying things coming out of these interactions between these big drivers. I'm just moving back to Martin. So just thinking about the sort of Australian context and the needs of the Australian consumers and the Australian environment and taking into account what Matt said, big differences between Sweden and Australia, same temperature. What might be some of the particular considerations you're taking into account in how you roll out your vehicle fleet sales here? I would say that, first and foremost, we need sustainability leaders. We spoke about partnership and collaboration. And I have to say that ACT, yes, they are real sustainability leaders when it comes to state government. And we have a partnership there that you may be aware of. So that's important that sustainability leaders come together. Legislation needs to change. We have medium duty battery electric vehicles here today. I'm also a member of the Truck Industry Council of Australia, so all the other OEMs feel the same way. So if we get legislation changed, we can accelerate the uptake of heavy duty battery electric vehicles. So if we take Melbourne up to Brisbane, roughly 80% of the freight task is performed in those routes. So we can see that's a key area for us to accelerate the transition. Then of course we spoke about the infrastructure. We spoke about what we've seen in Europe, what we've seen in Sweden and the rest of Europe. We really need to collaborate here in Australia to accelerate that. Business industry is not waiting. The demand is very high for heavy duty trucks and customers have their own solutions where they can actually charge the vehicles at base, then they work for the day to come back again. But of course where we have interstate and longer distances, that becomes a challenge. So really the technology is there. We need academia, government, industry to collaborate, to accelerate the transition, get legislation changed and it will happen. Thanks very much Martin. And I think that is a really important point. How do you actually accelerate the transition and that's about people as well as about the technology and policy? And that I think brings us to the last question here, which is to Marnie, which is, how do you best incorporate social and psychological considerations into the enhancing the energy transition? Yeah, thanks Mike. So as I mentioned, I think it's crucial that technologists work together with social scientists and most importantly, we need to go out and ask people what they want, what do you want from the energy transition? What do you want when you have an electric vehicle? Do you wanna use it to support the grid? How do you wanna use your household battery? Would you rather have a neighborhood battery instead of a household battery? I think people are at the center of the energy transition in Australia and we need to understand what you want. Thanks Marnie for that. So that just opens up the opportunity for questions from the audience. We have some microphones or a microphone, I think over there. So if anyone wants to ask questions of the panel, you're free. So I think you have to go up to the mic, is that the thing? So you gotta move to the mic, not the other way around. If you can introduce yourself first. Yeah, sorry, Adam Shirley. I work at ABC Canberra here locally. I originally did environmental science way back when I was a student, so I've always had an interest in these sorts of matters. Thank you all for the presentation and welcome to our visitors. It's great to have you in our little old town. I think for all of you, particularly to you Minister Fossil, but I'm interested in the whole panel's views. In Australia I think we know that a want for a transition and an acceleration of it is in part dependent on what the fossil fuel companies do or don't want to do. These countries we know has in recent times been founded on big profits from fossil fuel miners and companies and that's a fact, like it or don't. I'm interested, Minister, from your perspective on what degree of strong arming is required to take the whip hand, as some see it, out of the fossil fuel companies ride, if you will. And there's been a bit about legislation to change legislation to fundamentally change the incentives for 100% electrification because that politically, as well as practically, has been, I think, an issue that has fallen governments in recent times here. So I'd love to know your views on that and whether that realistically will happen any time soon. Thank you, that's a difficult question. I will make my best not to comment on domestic politics here in Australia, but I can give you the Swedish perspective because I think what has happened in Sweden over the last couple of years, talking about the green transition, is that there has been a fundamental change in the discussion. If I had been here 10 or 15 years ago, I would say the green transition was back then something that we needed to do. It was a must. We didn't really want to, but we had to because of all the climate change, et cetera. Looking at Sweden today, and when I talk to the largest Swedish enterprises and private investors, they will tell me that the green transition today, there are numerous opportunities here. It's something that we don't only have to do, it's something that we want to do because we can make money of it. There are so many possibilities for economic growth, foreign trade, investments, creating economic growth, creating jobs, basically. And I believe that is just underlined the dramatic shift that is taking place here. I can give you one example. 10 years ago in the northern parts of Sweden, it's freezing cold all the time, but not in summer, then you will have like billions of mosquitoes. I love this part of the counter I must say, even if it doesn't sound like that, but looking at facts, 10 years ago, people would be leaving the northern parts of Sweden because there were no jobs. Today there is an industrial revolution going on in the northern parts of Sweden and has to do with batteries. There are numerous different companies located that are producing world-class batteries, which are needed for the transportation sector, et cetera. Today's problem in the northern parts of Sweden is another one. How can we attract all the amount of people that we need to come here and work? So 10 years ago, people were leaving and now we are trying to, okay, we need to build more houses. We need to invest in new schools, new hospitals. We need to attract people from all over the world, just to give you an example and an understanding of the revolution that is taking place here and how the green transition in Sweden has moved from becoming something that we had to do into being really an area where we have so many opportunities for not only doing good, but also in doing a great business out of it. I hope you understand what I mean. And I think that is the right perspective also for many other countries, just like Australia. We need to see all the great possibilities that lies ahead of us here. Thank you. Thanks, minister. Matt, did you want to? Certainly won't take the political element of that, but I probably could talk about the current government's approach and some of the things that they're looking to do. I think probably most importantly, and just picking up on the ministers, talking about regional and remote areas, the government announced a $1.9 billion pairing the Regions Fund, which is to assist some of these regional areas that have an investment in the technology that has been very, very good for Australia in terms of the economy. So transition and take up the opportunities that might exist with new clean energy and new industries, but also to be able to carbonise as well. So there is a recognition of there needs to be some money to help with that. The second thing I think, and it's happening and sort of very topical at the moment is the safeguard mechanism in Australia, which captures just over 200 of the largest emitters in Australia and working with them to reduce their emissions over time to sort of help with the transition to be able to make sure that our targets to 2035 and 2050 are available. So that's currently being consulted on. That's part of the solution. It's making sure that everyone has an opportunity to feed into that process, but also to sort of, it sends a signal that serious, the government's serious about that. There's nothing that needs to be done. And probably the last thing, which I think is important is when you look at a lot of them countries, sorry, companies, a lot of them have net zero 2050 targets already, nearly all of them. So they're already doing a lot of work in that space to be able to develop products or change processes or do things in their business that are much better for the climate. Thanks Matt. Comment Mark. On this note from an industry perspective in business, sustainable business must be profitable and profitable business must be sustainable. I've met with some fuel companies who are really keen to collaborate for electric vehicle charging. I would say that the biggest barrier right now is legislation. There's a strong demand from business. There's a real desire to be more sustainable and towards fossil free. Of course, some companies have got a bigger challenge than others, but there's a real desire there to accelerate the journey. Thanks very much Matt for that. I'm sorry, Martin. So next question, if we can keep both the questions and the responses down because we've got quite a queue of people. But next question. Thank you all for your presentation. My name's Neil Bibby. I'm the editor of the age Pacific Fire and Disaster Magazine and an ex fire chief. Martin, in your presentation, I counted four times you said there's legislation changes required. What are these barriers to entry that is stopping heavy vehicles coming into Australia? That's a very good question that I've asked many times. Coming from Europe where we have 27 countries can work in legislation and execute on that quite efficiently. Of course, Australia has the federal, state and local governments that everyone has a view on axle weights and vehicle widths is a key issue here. So if we get those axle weights increased on the front axle along the same lines as what Europe has today, not any greater and the width which Europe has today, then we can accelerate the transition very quickly. And that's the fundamental barrier at the moment, you see? As the barrier. Okay, yep. Okay, it's a call for standardisation, it sounds like, which makes a lot of sense from a point of view. And maybe just to follow up, during our consultation, that came through to lay out and clear some of the settings for Australia, which a lot of people tell you they're there for good reason. We need to work through them to be able to sort of adjust them, axles and widths of cars, which notwithstanding those changes, we've also heard from people interested in this, is infrastructure again. So certainly the vehicles are getting in here but rolling out the infrastructure, a lot of investment through arena in trialling some of these technologies back-to-base technologies, whether it's a battery in Sydney or they've done hydrogen down in Melbourne, there's still some more work to be done to be able to enable when those vehicles do come into the infrastructure. Thanks Matt, we've got about 10 minutes more for questions. So next question. Hi, I'm Janelino from Diplomates for Climate Action. Now, I have a question for Matt and probably Martin on Matt, when you talked about electric vehicle take-up, you were talking about ways of driving demand. It seems to me that there is a plenty of demand out there in the Australian community. The problem is supply. So I'm asking you and probably the head of Volvo to tell us, I mean, you've partly answered the question on heavy vehicles, but on sort of light, personal, normal people vehicles, what do you need to increase supply into the Australian market? I'm happy to start with that one. So again, consultation, pretty much unanimously, all stakeholders said some form of fuel efficiency standard for Australia was the best way to tackle supply. So that's something we've heard through consultation. That's something that doesn't exist in Australia at the moment. So that is something that we've heard loud and clear. Beyond that, we are seeing more and more vehicles coming on into Australia. Australia's, how would you describe? I suppose every country's a little bit different, the terrain, sometimes we're the same, sometimes we're different, but we love four-wheel drives. We love Utes. We love those types of cars. They're coming, EVs. The first Utes are being sold. There's Australia startups that are converting existing utilities into electric vehicles. We have heavy, rigid truck development battery down in Melbourne, I can think of. So we're starting to adopt the supply in those areas, but certainly loud and clear through our consultation with everyone who's the single biggest driver, particularly in that light vehicle, would be a fuel efficiency standard. And some of the things they quote to us when we talk to them was about in the first world, there's just Russia and ourselves who don't have a fuel efficiency standard. Even New Zealand does, so, jeez. And you know how we like to beat New Zealand? Only fairly though, no underarms. I think we've discussed heavy duty truck as a driver of a Volvo electric vehicle. It's a hybrid vehicle, and of course, the charging infrastructure is the main issue there. So I drive more often in the petrol engine than I would like to, so I can only charge at home and then charge at the office. So more charging stations than Australia would certainly accelerate private car electric vehicles. Thanks, Martin. Next question. Francis Clark, farmer from New South Wales. I'm about to take delivery of a Nissan Leaf in the next two or three weeks. But I find first of all, the Australian standard does not allow vehicle to grid at this stage, although South Australia appears to have found a way around it. So I'd like to know when the Australian standard is likely to change. And also a question to New South Wales, which I've already forwarded to Matt Keane, the minister, as to when he is going to permit vehicle to grid being allowed in New South Wales. I could probably talk to that. The Commonwealth in partnership with states and territories is actually working on a pathway for the harmonisation of connections of vehicle to grid. They're due to report back to energy ministers in the middle of the year on the plans for doing that. Thanks, Matt. I guess it does raise a question. Martin, is vehicle to grid on Volvo's radar? Absolutely. Any technology that can support the adoption rate is certainly on the radar, but Marnie knows more about that than I do. Thank you. Okay, next question. Good morning, everyone. My name is Ankit. I'm in year 12 from Narrabanda College. So my question is that electrification in the development towards EV has been estimated to cost about 500,000 jobs in the EU alone and replace about 225 jobs. So when carrying in a net lost about 275,000 jobs. And this is according to the industry trade group, Klepper. So my question is to you, do you think that the education system and a focus on upscaling is required and this has to be designed and catered towards the future of the world needs? I'll try. Of course, when we move from the horse and carriage to the motor vehicle, there was a huge disruption and created new jobs while killing off many industries. We can see much the same here. Actually Volvo in Sweden, we have our engine factory in Hoda and we've just announced a new battery plant there because as internal combustion engines maybe dropped down to battery electric vehicles come up, how do we create jobs? And we can see that and the minister for sale mentioned the opportunity in Australia for battery production. Volvo announced the very first heavy vehicle, heavy truck made of fossil free steel, a partnership with SSAB in Sweden. We have lots of green hydrogen, lots of iron ore in Australia. So I think there's many opportunities in Australia to create new industry in manufacturing, perhaps less exporting. And I think you should come to study engineering at the IEU. If I can just add to that, I think, I mean, I gave a very positive perspective and I truly believe that there are great opportunities from the whole green transition. But of course there are also challenges and you're pointed one, we need to adopt when it comes to the educational system. For example, we are trying to do that is not easy. You can't really command people, take that education instead of that one. So it need to be based on what people really want to do. But at least our perspective from Sweden is that when you try to explain the possibilities that lie ahead of you. And I mentioned before the northern parts of Sweden and the whole green industrial revolution that is taking place now. There are people, they react to that and they also believe when they see the opportunities that come for themselves. Another challenge I want to mention here is that talking about the electrification of the transportation system, it also requires much more electricity. And it's not only about transportation, it's also about the green steel, for example. In Sweden now, according to the last service here, we are talking about 100% increase in the need for electricity over the coming 20 years. So that is a great challenge as what we're trying to do now or the situation that we're facing is that we need to double the production of electricity without relying on fossil fuels. Because at the same time, we have another goal of having no fossil fuels at all, 2040. So of course that's a great, very important question. And we are, as I said, we are trying to focus now more on solar wind but also hydro. And in combination with that, also the next generation of nuclear for having like a base in the energy system. And Sweden and Australia also share another challenge there. We're also very large countries when it comes to size. So we need to build a grid that works for everyone in the whole of our respective countries. And probably the only thing that skills definitely on the mind of the government. They've announced in the last budget, I think new energy skills funding and new energy partnerships funding. And certainly the Powering the Regents Fund, I talked about the 1.9 billion, it recognises workforce and workforce development as an important part of that transition. And beyond that, I've been down to the manufacturer of some of these battery vehicles down in Melbourne and they showed me the engine and they say, if you're a diesel mechanic, you'd be all dirty and you'd be covered in heaps of oil and all that. He said, there's less moving parts, you're plugging the computer and it's much easier and you can do 10 a day instead of one. Why wouldn't you like a job like that? It's much easier. And certainly that where my children would relate to that because when they can sit in a computer and plug it in and not necessarily have to get their hands dirty, that's the new world. Thanks for bringing it down to earth, Matt. So just one last quick question. I'm Beck, I'm a year 11 student from Narrabanda College. And so whilst we continuously hear that companies are aiming towards net zero by 2050, we never really hear about how they plan to reach that goal. And so I guess for us, how can we hold these companies accountable for that goal whilst not knowing how they plan to get there? Thanks Beck, who's picking that one up? I seem to be speaking quite often here. It's a very good point actually that, you know, when I was studying, you know, the bottom line was that the measure, we predicted that it'll be triple bottom lines in the future. So we now see that companies are measured not just in profitability, but of course their environmental credentials and sustainability. All I can only speak on behalf of Volvo, we've set a clear plan. As I've said, our targets have been ratified by the science-based targets initiative. We're investing more than ever before in order to achieve those targets. So it's for all to see that it's publicly announced. In Australia, for example, that is part of this, all our facilities, our factory and all our facilities consume 100% green energy. So as well as the vehicles that we produce in use, of course, CO2 is produced, but the whole production system in the supply chain, we work and we get clear targets for that. So I feel many more companies maybe make the commitment, but I agree with you, perhaps we need to publicly produce the targets and how we're meeting those targets. Yes, I'll try to be brief, even though it's difficult for a politician, but I'll do my best to say that I think it's important here to build partnerships with companies because the truth is that the green transition is impossible without cooperating with them. The need for us is to make sure that we have a legislation that has a long-term focus that is stable, that gives the right conditions, and that is also very ambitious. I think from a European perspective, we also have the challenge of making sure that we have like the same kind of legislation in all countries. So you will not have an end up with a situation where one company can't compete with another company in another country that is located very nearby. So legislation must really lead the way here, but at the same time, make sure to build partnerships with private companies, and my opinion is that at least most of them, I would say, they are interested in this and want to do good because they understand that if they do this right, they can make money out of it. Thanks, and money quickly. Thank you very much for the question. That's a really important question to ask. Trust and accountability are real issues at the moment. In Australia, we have really low levels of trust in the energy industry. In fact, only one in five Australians believe the energy industry is acting in their interests. So it's an issue. It's something that we have to focus on in the future. Thanks, Marnie. It's a really important point there. And I was going to just respond as well. The issues that you've raised in terms of accountability are crucial, particularly for the younger generation. And so thank you for that question. So Australia's regulators are now right onto this, you know, addressing greenwashing. We see the issues about integrity in our carbon credits system being raised, including by people from ANU, Professor Andrew McIntosh. Significant issues there yet to be resolved, in my view. We see this propagating right through business and now starting to have adoption of the task force for climate-related financial disclosure and also the task force for nature-related financial disclosure and the bringing in sustainability accounting standards, which I think will tighten up those issues that you raise and give less leeway for manipulating the system and greenwashing. So I think these are some of the things which will be particularly important over the next decades as we actually start to really bite into this transition that we're seeing because this is a huge transition. This is one of the biggest transitions humanity will go through. So just to wrap up, we've had, I think, a really great event here. We've heard some really constructive comments from the Crown Princess. We've heard the role that ANU can play in terms of this international transition that we're going through from the Vice-Chancellor. We've heard some really interesting perspectives from both governments, from industry, and from researchers here today, fleshing out some of the detail of what this might mean for individuals, for countries, and for the globe. And so I want to have everyone if they can thank the panel. And in particular, I'd like to thank Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel for attending here today and gracing us with your presence. So if everyone can stay seated whilst the Royal Party departs and then we'll have the next row departing along with everyone else, so thank you again.