Ian Dunlop

Ian Dunlop was formerly an international oil, gas and coal industry executive, chair of the Australian Coal Association and CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is a member of the Club of Rome and Chair, Advisory Board, Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration. Executive Committee member of the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group.

Ian's recent articles

Labor’s Future Gas Strategy: The greatest capitulation of any Australian government to the fossil fuel industry

Labor’s Future Gas Strategy: The greatest capitulation of any Australian government to the fossil fuel industry

Australians should be clear that the “Future Gas Strategy” released last week is not in the national interest. It represents the greatest capitulation of any Australian government to the demands of the fossil fuel industry.

Climate security risks and Australia’s failure

Climate security risks and Australia’s failure

You can’t solve a problem without talking about it, honestly. Take the impact of climate disruption on security.

What will it really take to become a Renewable Energy Superpower?

What will it really take to become a Renewable Energy Superpower?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese makes great play of his ambition to establish Australia as a Renewable Energy Superpower, a laudable ambition if it can be pulled off. But if ambition is to become more than platitudes, the Prime Minister needs to fundamentally reset current climate policy. Rather than sticking to the governments inadequate 2022 election promises, rapid bold steps are required now.

The Paris Agreement is dead. Australia must change its strategic priorities

The Paris Agreement is dead. Australia must change its strategic priorities

As COP28 flounders, the Paris Agreement is dead, and the imperative for emergency action has never been greater. This demands a fundamental change to Australias strategic priorities.

Breaking the suicidal impasse

Breaking the suicidal impasse

In the last few months events have occurred globally which indicate an astonishing, but not unexpected, acceleration in the pace of climate change. The world has now entered a new era of extremely dangerous climate impacts which are already proving catastrophic in many parts of the world. The factors which hitherto have constrained warming, such as the inertia of the climate system and the cooling effect of atmospheric aerosols, are fading, pushing the global climate system into uncharted territory.

The budget and climate change: getting our priorities right

The budget and climate change: getting our priorities right

The Governments treatment of climate change in the 2023 Budget is a vast improvement on their conservative predecessors. That said, it continues a pattern of reluctance to face reality on the really big issues which will determine our future as a nation, notably on climate.

A desperate race to avoid locking in the pathway to human extinction

A desperate race to avoid locking in the pathway to human extinction

We are in a desperate race to avoid locking in a pathway to human extinction. This requires brutal honesty on the threats we face. Climate change, not China, Russia or the US, is the greatest threat the world faces; it will only be overcome with unprecedented global co-operation.

Climate catastrophe now inevitable without emergency action

Climate catastrophe now inevitable without emergency action

By relying on consultants for policymaking, the government avoids making any serious contribution to the global effort to minimise temperature rise.

Morrison's 'Australian Way' climate plan is criminally irresponsible

Morrison's 'Australian Way' climate plan is criminally irresponsible

The Coalition's worship of fossil fuels and inept policymaking are leaving Australia defenceless against its greatest threat: climate change.

Australia's bare-minimum emissions plan rates zero all-round

Australia's bare-minimum emissions plan rates zero all-round

Australias net zero plan is a techno-optimist thought-bubble: it has an inappropriate objective, no clear priorities, and no realistic costing.

Climate of unreality: time to call out the National Party

Climate of unreality: time to call out the National Party

The Nationals have done a disservice to the farmers they claim to champion. They cannot be allowed to lead Australia's response to the climate catastrophe.

Australia's climate policies are a shambles will our children forgive us? Part 2

Australia's climate policies are a shambles will our children forgive us? Part 2

It is too late for an orderly transition to a low-carbon future. It's now imperative that we have scientifically literate, competent leaders acting for the common good.

The deniers at The Australian with their faux commitment to climate change. Part 1

The deniers at The Australian with their faux commitment to climate change. Part 1

Not so fast with the good news. To avoid disaster for the planet, we need tougher measures. Nothing short of embracing a war footing will be enough.

Climate Change: will the financial system survive?

One of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal global response to the escalating climate crisis has been the preparedness of financial market regulators to force their regulated institutions to face up to the implications of climate risk.

The net zero emission illusion

The net zero emission illusion

With Covid, the government has shown itself manifestly incapable of leading or managing its core responsibilities, beset by corruption and secrecy. The climate challenge is far greater than Covid, and there are no vaccinations or quarantine against climate impacts, which from now on will increase inexorably in the absenceof decisive leadership.

Earth Day 2021: Australia falls further out of line with the world

It is entirely appropriate that President Biden launched his global climate summit on Earth Day 2021. Earth Day began in the US in 1970, triggered by massive pollution across the country, and the need to fundamentally change concepts of industrial development if society was to prosper, rapidly leading by the end of 1970, to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency, with bipartisan political support.

The pandemic is climate change on fast forward

The think tank idea that the world can still make a gradual transition to a low-carbon world by tweaking neoliberalism is totally unrealistic. We need to undertake a massive risk management task, the first step of which must be a brutally frank assessment of the challenge we face. It is something that business, finance and politics continues to avoid.Achieving net zero emissions by 2050, is totally inadequate. It must be reached as soon as possible, ideally by 2030.

Net-zero emissions by 2050: leadership or climate colonialism? (Canberra Times Nov 2, 2020)

How fast does Australia need to reduce greenhouse emissions to play its fair part in responding to the global climate emergency?

What must climate and energy policy really achieve?

The Australian Government is dangerously out-of-touch as climate change accelerates and a cascade of tipping points risks unstoppable global warming.

LobbyLand. Fossil Fuel Lobbyists: Modus Operandi, Impact, Solutions

In Australia, denial mounts. The recent Gas-Led Recovery and Technological Roadmap announcements of the Morrison government confirm the continued influence of the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists.

The Coal Curse A Review

Governments are abrogating their first responsibility, which is to safeguard the people and their future well-being. The first part of historian Judith Bretts Quarterly Essay, The Coal Curse - Resources, Climate and Australias Future, is a masterly dissection of Australian economic history since WW2.

The really big and tough issue is the environment says Ken Henry

In last weekends Sydney Morning Herald, Jessica Irvine quizzed Ken Henry on his preferences for tax reform. Ken emphasised the critical importance of a clear, settled allocation of roles between the Commonwealth and the States.

IAN DUNLOP. Fatal Calculations: How Economics has Underestimated Climate Damage and Encouraged Inaction

A rational response from Australias leaders to the unprecedented and disastrous 2019-20 megafires would have recognised, first, that they are another warning and the strongest yet that the catastrophic impacts of human-induced climate change are here now as lives are lost and livelihoods destroyed. Second, it would accept the need for emergency action.

IAN DUNLOP. Emergency action on climate change is imperative

The first Australian National Climate Emergency Summit was in Melbourne Town Hall, 14-15 February 2020 - there will be many more.

IAN DUNLOP. Have we a federal government fit for purpose or the greatest danger to our national security?

The current bushfires are unprecedented in terms of their extent, intensity, fire season length, economic and social impact. They are, without doubt, intensified by human-induced climate change.

IAN DUNLOP.-The real implications of climate emergency action

The drought and bushfires ravaging large parts of Australia are a foretaste of the climate emergency which, after three decades of inaction by our political and corporate leaders, is locked-in for years to come.

IAN DUNLOP. A call to the Australia people - demand serious action on climate change before it is too late. PART 2. GOVERNANCE

How good is Australias climate leadership? In short, appalling, as the recent disputes on the linkage between climate change, drought, water availability and bushfires confirm only too well.

IAN DUNLOP. A call to the Australia people - demand serious action on climate change before it is too late. PART 1. CONTEXT

The Real Climate Challenge After three decades of inaction, human-induced climate change is the greatest threat, and opportunity, facing this country, far outweighing the issues dominating our domestic political discourse, such as the US/China impasse, a faltering economy and religious freedom. The world faces the same threat.

Time for the Coal Industry to Face Reality

The first priority of any government is the security of its people. The greatest threat to that security today is human-induced climate change. Because of the refusal of political and corporate leaders over the last two decades to take climate change seriously, it now represents a threat which will wipe out civilisation as we know it, unless we move to emergency action. We have left it too late to make a gradual transition to a low-carbon world.

IAN DUNLOP, DAVID SPRATT. Australias climate stance is inflicting criminal damage on humanity (The Guardian)

The government opts for conflict rather than change, while suppressing details on the implications of its climate inaction

IAN DUNLOP. Parliament must treat Climate Change as an Emergency

A year ago, discussion of climate change as an existential threat, and the corresponding need for emergency action, was anathema to those leading debate on climate policy in the political, corporate and NGO incumbencies globally. Incremental change remained the order of the day. But even that was too much for Australia, where political denial of climate change remained dominant.

IAN DUNLOP. Modelling Climate Change Minutiae

The hysteria surrounding Brian Fishers economic modelling of Coalition and ALP climate policies typifies the predatory delay which has bedevilled the development of any sensible response to our climate and energy dilemma since Australia signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, namely: The blocking or slowing of needed change, in order to make money off unsustainable, unjust systems in the meantime.

IAN DUNLOP. Stopping Adani is a National Necessity, Economically, Financially and for our Survival.

Central banks, regulators and insurers are starting to acknowledge that the risks of human-induced climate change will have far greater economic and financial consequences than the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Likewise, global investors and corporations are finally accepting that climate risk is fundamentally changing their business models.

IAN DUNLOP, DAVID SPRATT. Is the Australian Public Service fit-for-purpose to handle existential climate risk?

The first duty of a government is to protect the people, their safety and well-being. Nowhere is this duty more important than in addressing climate change, which now constitutes a near-term existential threat to human civilisation. It is an open, and pressing, question whether the Australian Public Service (APS), and particularly the intelligence services, currently have the capacity to properly consider and assess the climate threat to the people of Australia, and to offer sound advice on action to minimise that threat.

IAN DUNLOP. Climate Policy: Predatory delay destroys prosperity, threatens survival.

As the debacle of Australian climate and energy policy unfolded over the last three decades, the continuing bleat from peak industry bodies, such as the BCA, MCA and APPEA, has been the need for policy certainty and consistency.Notwithstanding the fact that those same organisations too often have wilfully undermined achievement of those objectives.

IAN DUNLOP. The Elephant in the Election Room. The Immediate Existential Threat of Climate Change.(SMH 14.2.2019)

Human-induced climate change is happening faster than officially acknowledged. Extreme events intensify, particularly in Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Victoria and Tasmania are ablaze again. Queensland needs a decade to recover from recent floods. Much of SE Australia has become a frying pan, curtailing human activity. The economic and social cost is massive, as Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Guy Debelle warned us this week, but our leaders refuse absolutely to acknowledge climate change as the cause.

IAN DUNLOP. Keeping Australians Safe and Secure

Defence Minister Christopher Pyne recently gave us the benefit of his wisdom on the parlous state of Australian politics, doubting that it is any longer capable of acting for the long-term good of the nation. Prime Minister Morrison confirmed the truth of Pynes observation in his 11 February 2019 National Press Club speech on Keeping Australians Safe and Secure. A masterpiece of obfuscation and scaremongering.

IAN DUNLOP. The Best of 2018: A Parliament Without Trust or Legitimacy Must Go

The insults hurled by David Leyonhjelm at Sarah Hanson-Young recently put parliamentary discourse in the gutter. Leyonhjelm was roundly condemned, but not by our leaders. A limp slap across the knuckles from Turnbull and Shorten, then on to more pressing matters, hoping it will all go away.

IAN DUNLOP. The Best of 2018: The Monash Forum of Coal & Horses.

Sir John Monash was a visionary engineer, military leader and much more, who succeeded in spite of the prejudices of the conservative Melbourne establishment (read: The Coalition right wing), to become, in Field Marshal Bernard Montgomerys view, the best general on the Western Front in WW1. Monash was renowned for his vision and innovation. In 1920 he became Chair and General Manager of the newly-formed State Electricity Commission of Victoria, continuing for many years to oversee major power developments, particularly the opening up of the Latrobe Valley brown coal deposits.

DAVID SPRATT & IAN DUNLOP. In the climate end-game, humanity has a big decision to make

Humanity has a big decision to make very soon about its future on warming planet, but the Federal Coalition is still in denial that human-induced climate change even exists, let alone that the climate end-game is upon us.

IAN DUNLOP. A Parliament Without Trust or Legitimacy Must Go

The insults hurled by David Leyonhjelm at Sarah Hanson-Young recently put parliamentary discourse in the gutter. Leyonhjelm was roundly condemned, but not by our leaders. A limp slap across the knuckles from Turnbull and Shorten, then on to more pressing matters, hoping it will all go away.

IAN DUNLOP. Climate Risk Minerals Council of Australia Directors Breach Duties of Care and Due Diligence

After 30 years of inaction, the focus on climate risk is accelerating as the physical impact of climate change worsens and the transition risks to a low-carbon world intensify. Despite effusive official rhetoric, nothing has been done to seriously address climate change, notwithstanding increasingly urgent warnings[1] [2]. Global climate-related losses are running at record levels [3].

IAN DUNLOP. Climate Change: The fiduciary responsibility of politicians & bureaucrats. Part 2 of 2.

Fiduciary: a person to whom power is entrusted for the benefit of another Power is reposed in members of Parliament by the public for exercise in the interests of the public and not primarily for the interests of members or the parties to which they belong. The cry whatever it takes is not consistent with the performance of fiduciary dutySir Gerard Brennan AC, KBE, QC After three decades of global inaction, none more so than in Australia, human-induced climate change is now an existential risk to humanity. That is, a risk posing large negative consequences which will...

IAN DUNLOP. Climate Change: The fiduciary responsibility of politicians & bureaucrats. Part 1.

Fiduciary: a person to whom power is entrusted for the benefit of another Power is reposed in members of Parliament by the public for exercise in the interests of the public and not primarily for the interests of members or the parties to which they belong. The cry whatever it takes is not consistent with the performance of fiduciary dutySir Gerard Brennan AC, KBE, QC After three decades of global inaction, none more so than in Australia, human-induced climate change is now an existential risk to humanity. That is, a risk posing large negative consequences which will...

IAN DUNLOP. The Monash Forum of Coal & Horses.

Sir John Monash was a visionary engineer, military leader and much more, who succeeded in spite of the prejudices of the conservative Melbourne establishment (read: The Coalition right wing), to become, in Field Marshal Bernard Montgomerys view, the best general on the Western Front in WW1. Monash was renowned for his vision and innovation.

IAN DUNLOP. If Business Leaders Want To Regain Our Trust, They Must Act On Climate Risk.

Business leaders seem astonished that community trust in the activities is at an all-time low, trending towards the bottom of the barrel inhabited by politicians. To the corporate leader dedicated to the capitalist, market economy success story of the last 50 years, that attitude is no doubt incomprehensible and downright ungrateful.

IAN DUNLOP. Facing Disaster Alley, Australia shirks responsibility- A REPOST from June 27 2017

The first responsibility of a government is to safeguard the people and their future wellbeing. The ability to do so is increasingly threatened by human-induced climate change, the accelerating impacts of which are driving political instability and conflict globally. Climate change poses an existential risk to humanity which, unless addressed as an emergency, will have catastrophic consequences.

IAN DUNLOP. Climate & Energy Appeasement Does Not Work

The current chaos around climate and energy policy brings to mind George Santayanas caution that: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. That is exactly what we are witnessing, albeit with far more profound implications even than the advent of the Second World War.

IAN DUNLOP. The Coal and CSG Delusion

Energy policy is the issue to trump them all. We have already lost several Prime Ministers in its cause, and more will likely walk the plank before commonsense prevails. But the last few weeks have set new standards for national stupidity .

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