Dr Rod Carr: “Leaders need to get with the tide of history”

“Don’t wait to do yesterday’s business, poorly, tomorrow,” says Chair of the Climate Commission Dr Rod Carr on the risk of waiting to act on climate change.

Dr Carr, who will be speaking at the Institute of Directors’ Leadership Conference in May, says while much of the country is in limbo as a new government settles in, it is crucial that leaders across business and the community take the lead on climate change. Waiting for a steer from the government may not provide more certainty, he says.

“Leadership is not followership. All leaders need to understand the role they can play in helping their communities transition to a lower-emissions society, and that does not come from standing in the middle of a crowd and taking a poll on which way to go,” he says, emphatically.

From his observations, there are conflicting and confusing messages stalling leaders from acting – a result of uncertainty about the scale, pace, and urgency of the transition to renewable energy and electrification that is already underway.

Carr also adds that in our current economic situation, with a cost-of-living-crisis and a tight labour market, there is no excuse for leaders to continue sitting on the pause button “because skills shortages are not likely to end anytime soon”.

“Businesses are always confronted with challenges, that's the nature of business. But if you keep waiting in anticipation of more engineers and technically able people to help build your new business, and what is needed to run a low emissions economy, then you'll be overtaken,” he says.

The point Carr wants to make is that climate change is not waiting, and neither should we. While funding will always be scarce, inaction entails risks that might be bigger than you think.

“While you’re waiting, your competitors are mobilising; they’re changing their business practices so their environmental footprint is smaller…they’re creating new low emissions products and services that the world – and affluent consumers – will be willing to buy, by the middle of this century.”

But where there are risks, there are also opportunities. And with an energy transition that Carr says will cost tens of billions of dollars – to build the infrastructure and technology to get renewable energy up and running – there could mean a boom for those in the job market.

According to Carr, there are four pillars to New Zealand’s transition to a thriving, low-emissions society: reduce emissions from transport, land use, the built environment, and energy production and use. Transmission lines will need to be built and local lines companies will be required to build up capacity to support the installation of new devices required to charge batteries, run heat pumps, make hydrogen and more.

“There are massive job, investment and business opportunities, including in low emissions energy and transport.

“There are opportunities for businesses to think carefully about the logistics of what they transport, how they transport, and where they transport to, and there will be new technologies to deploy and maintain in transport and energy.”

The changing climate, new technologies and shifting consumer preferences will change how we use land. Carr says some traditional types of livestock farming will no longer be possible in currently established places, and some farmers may need to transition to more ‘capital intensive’ livestock farming or diversify.

“Land use changes are with us and come with business opportunities to build new things in different places,” he says. 

In the built environment, dense urban areas have lower emissions per capita which means they are easier to heat and cool, and it is more efficient to get from A to B, and therefore they have lower impacts on the environment. “In New Zealand, we will see the development of solutions to some of our urban problems, all of which represent business opportunities, jobs, capital deployment and return on investment,” says Carr.

But if you’re feeling bogged down by an oversaturation of climate-related news and climate change messaging, Carr implores business and community leaders to not let that get in the way of moving forward, because “like Covid, climate change won’t go away just because we don't want to know about it”. 

“We can look the other way, but it won't change what is going on. This is not a matter of choice; this is a matter of science.”

Carr is confident in New Zealand businesses to do the right thing.

“Businesses are at their best when they get on and seize opportunities. They're at their worst when they wait to be told.” 

 

Dr Rod Carr will be speaking at the 2024 Leadership Conference – an annual event hosted by the Institute of Directors in New Zealand.

13 - 14 May at Te Pae Convention Centre, Ōtautahi, Christchurch.

To find out more about the event, or to register, head to the website.