Engineering activities are connected with over 65% of Australia’s Direct Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
(Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, National Inventory by Economic Sector 2017, p3. 65.6% is a sum of the ‘Electricity, Gas and Water’, Mining and ‘Services, Construction and Transport’ categories.)
Engineering teams have a responsibility to actively support the transition of our economy towards a low carbon future. This begins with honestly and loudly declaring a climate and biodiversity emergency.
Signatories acknowledge that First Nations peoples have long espoused the cultural, social, economic and environmental benefits embedded in the holistic relationship of Caring for Country. They respect and embrace this perspective.
Australian Engineers Declare Climate and Biodiversity Emergency signatories seek to:
Evaluate all new projects against the environmental necessity to mitigate climate breakdown, and encourage our clients to adopt this approach.
Advocate for faster change in our industry towards regenerative design practices, that respect ecological limits whilst enabling socially just access to resources and services, and a higher governmental funding priority to support this.
Advocate for and undertake 21st-century economic assessments that take a whole-of-system, whole-of-life approach, and take into account the implications of expanding beyond ecological ceilings and failing to meet fundamental human rights and social justice obligations.
Join with other professions and work with government to develop a stronger and more comprehensive whole-of-government response to the climate emergency.
Collaborate with policy makers and planners, contractors and clients to further these broad outcomes.
Learn from and collaborate with First Nations to adopt work practices that are respectful, culturally sensitive and regenerative.
Upgrade existing infrastructure and technology for extended use when the opportunity arises for carbon emissions reduction.
Accelerate the shift to circular economy principles (e.g. minimise wasteful use of resources) and low embodied carbon materials in all our work.
Implement climate change and biodiversity loss mitigation principles.
Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for action in our organisations and networks.
Track and share stories of success as individuals and companies make climate positive choices, building pride and solidarity in the engineering sector and our role in delivering a healthy planet.
Share knowledge and research to that end, on an open source basis.
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Assess
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Assessment
Learning Pathways
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ResourcesAustralian Engineers Declare Climate and Biodiversity Emergency
Web link
2 minutesTwo years on from the Engineering Declaration of a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency – what does effective action look like?
Video
Waste
Lunch + Learn with Architects Declare and Engineers Declare – Integrated design (1 Dec 2021)
Video