Artists are some of the best-positioned people to communicate and help deliver progress towards a zero emission energy future. They are creative, complex systems thinkers who welcome challenges. Throughout history, artists have played a central role as cultural thought leaders.
Despite billions of dollars committed to clean energy projects in the Albanese government’s “Future Made in Australia” plan, CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia) has found that the success of such investments is hindered because “complex, fragmented and in some cases, outdated planning and permitting processes are delaying progress”. It’s no wonder, as recent reports show Australia is making “sluggish” progress in launching new renewable energy projects, with planning permit applications in Victoria for renewable energy generation projects taking an average of 376 days in the 2023 financial year.
We cannot afford planning laws that are so easily exploited by the fossil fuel industry and its allies aggressively seeking to block the energy transition. That is, by the very people who – since at least the early 1970s – have had the awareness, power, and responsibility to prevent the climate emergency.
Meanwhile, Torres Strait Islander elders are desperately fighting rising seas and the potential loss of their island home and have launched legal action to force the Australian government to act. It is a gross understatement to say we need urgent climate action now, and we are rapidly running out of time.
The way our communities, governments, and businesses take climate action needs a complete overhaul. The climate emergency is here. We need to think big.
But how do you think big about an issue that has been so deeply politicised by powerful people hell bent on maintaining “business as usual” (beyond obscene profits)?
And since the climate crisis has been at the forefront of Australians’ minds for years, how do you spark action for a clean energy future that millions of people have long been demanding, yet successive governments have lagged on delivering? How do we realise the cultural shift necessary to transition economies to zero emissions while drawing down excess greenhouse gas from the atmosphere at the scale and speed demanded by science?
If we want a liveable future, we need to adopt a mindset and perspective never before imagined. Herein lies the power of art.
In desperate times, we need positive change makers
To realise a clean energy future that drives tangible climate action, we need to think bigger and more differently than ever before. We need to see past all the limitations created by bureaucracies, red tape, and financially driven motives of people and organisations in power.
Art holds the keys to our imagination. Its power can spark visionary ideas, drive conversations, and draw people together in new, more collaborative ways. We need this transformation in the ways we approach clean energy and climate action if we are to succeed in addressing the climate emergency. In an era of doomscrolling, climate anxiety, and declining mental health, we need positive agency and optimism. Artists have the power to turn what has become a seemingly impossible “wicked problem” to address into a positive call to action that all Australians can rally around.
Artists are complex systems thinkers, primed for engaging science communication
While the science on climate change has been clear for decades, it has not been enough to shift our governments and leaders into the kind of action needed to save the ecosystems all life depends on.
Scientists play an invaluable role in researching and analysing how excess greenhouse gas impacts our planet, who is responsible, and what can be done to mitigate its impacts. We need cultural leaders to help bring scientific findings to life to help mobilise communities to demand effective climate action.
Artists are some of the best-positioned people to communicate and help deliver progress towards a zero emission energy future. They are creative, complex systems thinkers who welcome challenges. Throughout history, artists have played a central role as cultural thought leaders. They have unique ways of engaging audiences to think beyond their everyday lives and imagine what could be.
To reach a future that seems beyond our reach today, we need to imagine a future without limits. This is the world that artists work in. Despite being disproportionately disadvantaged in neoliberal “profit at all costs” systems that have driven the climate crisis, artists around the world are punching above their weight in contributing to the economy.
Even allowing for the narrow definition of what is considered the “creative industry”, an Australian Institute report found the arts and entertainment sector contributed $17 billion in GDP to the Australian economy in 2018-19 alone.
It’s time to back our artists with the funding they deserve. The arts represent the best of us. If we can empower some of our most critical, visionary thinkers with the tools and support they need to deliver their best work, we will find new ways for individuals, investors, businesses, and philanthropists to imagine our way out of today’s climate emergency.