'Australia must stop selling coal': Branson calls for climate 'revolution' - 12th November 2019

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As 'unprecedented' bushfires threaten NSW, Richard Branson has called on Australia to become a world leader in the renewable energy space. CREDIT: BLOOMBERG

By Matt Bungard

English billionaire Sir Richard Branson has called on Australia to become a world leader in the renewable energy space, saying that "if you do the right thing, you'll find in the years to come you'll get the benefits".

As NSW braces itself for one of the worst days of bushfires ever recorded, the Virgin Group founder spoke about its connection to climate change on Tuesday morning in Sydney.

"I'm afraid that Australia must stop selling coal overseas to China and it must stop using coal in Australia," he told the Herald. "It is the most damaging thing that it can do."

"I would suggest the Australian government create a revolution in clean energy, which can create thousands more jobs than coal could ever produce."

Branson is in Australia to promote the launch of a partnership between Virgin Australia and his cruise line Virgin Voyages. Last year, Branson criticised Australia's coal industry and likened the issue of climate change to World War III.

He said the right decision was not always the easy one, citing a "painful" decision last year to decline a billion dollars of funding from the Saudi Arabian government for his space program, Virgin Galactic. The move came after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The 69-year-old floated the idea of a clean energy dividend early this year, sitting down with other business people to try and develop an "entrepreneurial way of addressing climate change that doesn't have the negative effects that carbon tax has had in the past - which obviously brought down the Australian government".

The scheme, he said, is simple.

"Every company that emits carbon should work out its carbon footprint, and then a percentage of their turnover or profits relating to that footprint will not just be sent to the government to be lost in the coffers. 100 per cent will be spent on clean energy initiatives."

He said that if every company was forced to adhere to these rules that "we would have trillions and trillions going into clean energy and very quickly".

"What would happen is the price of clean energy would drop dramatically, and stay down forever. It will never go back up again."

"That's something I'll be talking to the Australian government about," he said, mentioning that renowned Australian scientist Tim Flannery had also reached out to him praising the idea.

He noted the potential hypocrisy of launching a cruise line as concerns over pollution in that industry have reached fever pitch in recent years but said that Virgin would do "everything possible, plus more".

"Staff are challenged to come up with ideas to make us [as environmentally] friendly as possible," he said. "It's obvious single-use plastics should not be used on a cruise ship, because some people will throw them overboard. We've had specially made suncream which won't damage the reefs.

"With brand new ships and brand new technology, we can lower our footprint," Virgin Voyages CCO Nirmal Saverimuttu added.

(The Sydney Morning Herald)

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Tim Martinus

agree. but if we do that our economy will collapse. ????

Media For Good

It's partly uncharted territory. Our "natural resources" have helped keep Australia going for so many decades. Overall, it appears our alternative fuels and resources are lagging behind. We need more Australian owned and operated, so the wealth truly stays in Australia...

Tim Martinus

Media For Good Richard and Elon seem to make a lot more sense than any 'politician; !!!!!

Media For Good

Ain't that the truth. The succeeded in the commercial business world on a massive scale. They didn't get paid X $ per hour to show up, push a pen and have a meeting or three, sitting in Parliament trying to look busy. Hey, truth is truth. I worked for an Australian shipping company way back, and also for the Sydney Water Board, many moons ago, on X $ per hour, plus bonuses. I do speak with some experience in both scenarios. I don't think all politicians are bad, but I do believe there is a hell of a lot of room for improvement in "the system". That's my commentary on the matter for today. Thanks, and let's continue this perhaps later into the week, or next. Much appreciated. Greg