Melbourne's Mayor at COP30: Need Governments to Be 'All In' On Climate Change

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Watch Melbourne's Mayor at COP30: Need Governments to Be 'All In' On Climate Change - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

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00:00Thank you very much for being here.

00:03We're here having this conversation about the role that subnational leaders can play.

00:07So mayors and governors, regional heads, talk a bit about the role as you see it, as we

00:12kind of look at the US, not just stepping back, but rejecting at administrative level

00:16a lot of climate policy.

00:18What role can these kind of subnational leaders play?

00:20Yeah, thank you, David.

00:22Look, I think cities and regional subnational governments have a very important role to

00:27play in climate action, in fact, an essential role to play.

00:32I know at a city level, we are the level of government closest to the people.

00:37We see problems first.

00:39We feel it on our streets.

00:41We see the challenges of air pollution causing 7 million premature deaths globally.

00:48We see the impact that heat is having.

00:50In my home city of Melbourne, we estimate it's costing our economy $200 million a year.

00:56We see, we call it the silent killer.

00:59Again, thousands of premature deaths.

01:02We see the impact it has on our economy in terms of changing agricultural output and output

01:06overall.

01:07So I think that climate action is such a multifaceted global challenge.

01:14We need everyone to be all in, national governments, regional governments and city governments.

01:19I think cities in particular have a special role to play.

01:22As I said, we are the innovators and the implementers.

01:26We have an ability to move more quickly than other levels of government, to try new policy

01:32interventions.

01:33And if they work, great, they can be scaled up to a regional or national level.

01:37If they fail, hey, that's fine.

01:39They fail fast in one city.

01:41And we're also the implementer.

01:42So quite often, these big, grand national targets or global emissions targets ultimately

01:50translate down to street-level action, action on our streets, neighborhoods and cities.

01:56And it's the cities that are doing that.

01:57So I think there's a really critical role there.

01:59What do you say to people, maybe your constituents who roll their eyes at gatherings like this at

02:04COP30, sort of wonder what it is, what it actually leads to?

02:07What tangibly can you get out of a gathering like this one?

02:10What can you bring back?

02:11Look, I think that climate action is such a huge global challenge that we are all in

02:16this together.

02:18And having leaders get together and, you know, compare notes, compare ideas, work out what's

02:25working, what's not working is absolutely critically important.

02:29You know, I know I've been here the last three days talking with city mayors, talking to cities

02:34just like mine and working out, you know, what new things are they trying?

02:39How can I take home to Melbourne, to Australia?

02:42And that's invaluable.

02:44You know, it's not easy to make change in a modern world.

02:48You know, you need to get the policy right and you need to get the politics right as well.

02:53And so these sort of gatherings where you can, you know, get together, see what's happening

02:57at the cutting edge.

02:58Some people call that the bleeding edge is so helpful.

03:02And ultimately that translates back to action, good policy, better cities and better outcomes

03:09for the communities that we serve, the community that I serve in Melbourne.

03:12I want to situate this conference in this broader global energy transition.

03:17And we hear so much about, talk so much about the AI revolution and see how much power, how

03:23much the demand for power has grown for that.

03:26How much is that part of the conversation that you've been having here in Rio?

03:29Yeah, that's a great question, David, and this has been an emerging issue.

03:35I mean, we think that AI technology and what's happening with the rollout of data centers is

03:40a positive thing for humanity.

03:41There's great benefits there from this new technology.

03:46But the truth is, they are also huge energy consumers and big water consumers as well.

03:52In my home city of Melbourne, we've had a large number of data centers going in, recently looking

03:58at a major new data center as well.

04:00And we worked out that by 2040, almost 20% of the energy in our grid will be going to data

04:06centers.

04:07A fifth of it.

04:08And so if that new, if those new consumers of energy aren't sourcing that from sustainable

04:15sources, renewable sources, then we're not going to meet our climate targets.

04:20And so this is an emerging new technology that's got a lot of positive upside to it.

04:25But we've also got to manage some of those externalities and make sure that they're sustainable.

04:31They've got renewables being used to power them.

04:35They've got sustainable water management plans in place.

04:39And that they take into account the overall benefit for the city that they deliver.

04:43We all want to be smart cities, but we don't want to cook the planet in our endeavor to

04:48get there.

04:49That would be ironic and a tragedy.

04:53So we've got really strong support.

04:56I'm very pleased to say that Mayor Kate Gallego from Phoenix and I have been talking with other

05:03cities and U.S. cities like Portland, Chicago, European cities like Athens, Paris, Barcelona,

05:11Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, we've all signed on.

05:14So we're forming an alliance of cities to look at this issue, to use our city powers to

05:19ensure that the rollout of AI infrastructure and big data is done in a sustainable way.

05:26You're hitting at something that I've often wondered about, which is we've seen this kind

05:29of breakneck speed of growth from AI.

05:33And policy as I see it is having a hard time keeping up with that.

05:36You can look at that at a regulatory level, sort of what AI is able to do or should be

05:39able to do.

05:40But certainly on this side of electricity and power as well.

05:43How much of a concern is that for you, the ability of governments at all levels to keep

05:47up with the developments that we've seen?

05:49Yeah, I think it's really important that we do, you know, and we've seen this story

05:53in history before.

05:54Like think about the automobile, right?

05:55It brought so much benefit to humankind, but we did need to put road rules in place.

06:02We did need to put emission standards in place so that new technology betters our lives.

06:08But you know, we optimise the good that comes from it.

06:10And we can optimise the good from AI by putting in a framework which ensures that as this new

06:18technology grows, it's occurring in a sustainable way.

06:21In fact, what we've realised at this conference here in Rio is that this is actually an urgent

06:26and pressing need.

06:27And so the cities of the world, the innovators and the implementers, we're moving quickly.

06:32And we hope that this is something that will be picked up at a national level as well.

06:37It might be a big one for COP31 next year.

06:40Talk a bit about that.

06:41I don't want to make you speak for all your countrymen, but Australia in the running to

06:43host COP31 next year.

06:47Talk a bit about sort of what that platform is or why Australia would be the place to

06:50have this conference in its next iteration.

06:51Look, Australia has a really positive story to tell on climate action.

06:56We've got our challenges as well, like everybody.

06:58But we think a COP31 in the Pacific, hosted in Australia, is the logical next step for global

07:06action.

07:08We hope that Adelaide will be the host city and we hope, you know, all Australian cities

07:12will be there to play a supporting role.

07:14We also want to bring the Pacific Island states together as part of that, because they are

07:20actually at the absolute front line of the consequences of climate action.

07:26As we are in Australia, you know, we have had the most terrible wildfires that, you know,

07:30I think many viewers in North America and Europe could not even imagine.

07:35We had the Black Summer fires that burnt out an area the size of England and Wales combined.

07:44We lost three billion animals and creatures in that fire, three billion.

07:50So the scale of the impact of climate change in Australia and the Pacific is absolutely pressing.

08:02We believe in the need for urgent action and we think that, you know, Australia, we're a

08:07very friendly bunch, we would love to host COP31.

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