Australia, Asia and achieving sustainability

The Australia in the Asian Century white paper presents the notion that Australia should develop closer relationships with its Asian neighbours. At the Australian Sustainability conference and exhibition, the benefits of such relationships were examined in terms of sustainability.

On the second day of the event, held in Sydney from 8-9 November, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr Ken Henry AC presented the plenary keynote session ‘How will Sustainable Growth and Environmental Protection be Achieved as Asia’s Primacy Increases this Century?’

Dr Henry used the opportunity to discuss the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper and how it relates to sustainability. He said the paper contains a strong sustainability theme, although this was not actually its aim. He said the paper applied a sustainability framework when looking at trends - social and cultural, security and strategic - and their possible impacts on Australia.

Dr Henry addressed the fact that Asia, particularly China, has a strong awareness of sustainability issues and a willingness to address these issues, calling China’s five-year plan “the most impressive sustainable development document that has been prepared in recent times”. He further noted that China’s senior government officials are working on many of the same problems as Australia’s, with good reason.

“If your job was to be the leader of 1.3 billion Chinese, you would be absolutely focused on food security, energy security, water security,” Dr Henry said.

“The big [military] security issue for the region is this question: whether China can achieve security ... in energy, in food, in water and in climate, without threatening the peace and the stability of the region.”

Not only may Australia be impacted by China’s actions, but we are partially responsible for them due to our strong economic relationship with the country.

“China purchases nearly 30% of Australia’s exports,” said Dr Henry. “Japan purchases nearly 20% ... another 25% of Australia’s exports go to other countries in the region.”

More than half these exports, said Dr Henry, are non-renewable natural resources such as iron-ore and coal, which have gone on to fuel industrialisation and urbanisation in China.

“An average 60 m² apartment in China takes 7 tonnes of steel to construct and each tonne of steel requires 1.7 tonnes of iron-ore,” said Dr Henry.

Dr Henry noted that as Asia’s middle-class increases, so too does their disposable income and their consumption. Demand for protein in the form of fish and meat is growing, with the latter requiring substantially more water for production than an equivalent amount of rice. Ten years ago China’s energy consumption was about half that of the United States - today it has overtaken it, despite the fact that the country’s GDP is only one-fifth of the US.

“Imagine the prospect of China’s GDP per capita catching up to US GDP per capita. Imagine how much energy then China would be consuming,” noted Dr Henry.

Dr Henry said that China is now looking to Australia for advice and that this is a good opportunity for Australian businesses and universities to help them out. The core of the white paper is that Australia has to have more of an international focus. It states that Australian businesses have been slow in realising that as a high-wage country, having an international focus and influence is the best sustainable business strategy; this should therefore be sought in the region. Furthermore, with Asian countries now more accepting of Australian businesses’ generally high working conditions and sustainability concerns, we have an opportunity to showcase the appeal of such principles.

In the white paper, the government has outlined 25 national objectives for Australia to achieve by the year 2025. Several of these objectives are about sustainability - and one of them concerns sustainability in the region.

“Here, the commitment is to ensure that the region is made more sustainable … through the development of resilient markets for basic needs such as energy, food and water,” Dr Henry said. He outlined six pathways through which this can be achieved:

• Working with the region to support markets in carbon, energy, food and water.
• Supporting the development and use of environmental accounting in the region through cooperation between national statistical agencies.
• Working to build the capability of the regional food supply system, including through research and development.
• Building a comprehensive international carbon market by sharing experience and expertise with partner nations including China, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea.
• Supporting regional partners to improve energy efficiency and enhancing cooperation of research and development, and the deployment and commercialisation of new technologies.
• Continuing to be a high-quality development partner through collaborative arrangements aimed both at reducing poverty and improving sustainability.

An international, cooperative outlook, with a particular focus on managing the growing middle-class, urbanised environment of China and the rest of Asia, is thus what Dr Henry believes will keep Australia’s business dealings competitive and its resource management sustainable. This could benefit not only our businesses and our country but the region as a whole.