Attendance: 37 Members: 27 (of 47) 57% Guests: 10
Speaker: Amanda McKenzie - CEO Climate Council
As the guest speaker at our dinner meeting on 23 September 2025, Amanda McKenzie, CEO of Climate Council skillfully outlined for the audience two aspects of the climate crisis. The first aspect was alarm, sighting the recently published National Climate Risk Assessment which provides an assessment of Australia’s changing climate hazards.
The summary identifies increased sea levels affecting those living close to coastal areas, more severe and extreme heatwave events, greater frequency of flooding, more frequent fire weather days and bushfires, ocean warming affecting marine organisms and coral bleaching. The full report can be accessed by clicking on the following link https://www.acs.gov.au/pages/national-climate-risk-assessment
The second aspect was hope. As an example of this, Amanda outlined the substantial deployment of renewable sources of energy production and storage (batteries, pumped hydro) in Australia over the past five years, both by utility companies and households. She praised the Government’s home battery purchase subsidy noting that more than 50,000 batteries had been installed under the scheme Australia wide since 1 July. She also stressed the importance of initiatives that come from the community, and that’s perhaps where Rotary can play a part.