Australia, with 12.3% of its electricity generated by solar, is third highest worldwide, behind Chile (18%) and Honduras (12.5%) according to Energy Monitor. But we have the potential to gain further ground with many developments underway. These include a Queensland Gov plan to reach 70% renewable electricity by 2032 (see ABC announcement) and NSW establishing 5 Renewable Energy Zones (see Gov data below).Combined with the earlier-than-expected closure of Loy Yang coal-fired Power Station in Victoria (currently providing 30% of electricity) - we are truly in a transition, but we still need a speed-up.https://www.energymonitor.ai/tech/renewables/the-worlds-top-ten-solar-power-superpowers 

An exciting new startup to come out of global VC Antler's program is accountech startup Brieff. They are on a mission to make every accountant into a virtual CFO. As tech solutions to increase productivity are making our lives easier, it also means that 94% of accounting work will be replaced by tech. This means accountants are the 3rd most at-risk job to be made redundant by 2025. Brieff was created as a counter-answer to this issue and allows for accountants to scale their advisory service, pivoting their role to include more time with clients. Check out Brieff here: https://brieff.io/

It's Spark Festival season! Join SBE Australia for a panel discussion on how we can collectively move the metric on investment to women led ventures:Evie Fox Koob | DeloitteKerri Lee Sinclair | SBE AustraliaPeter van Bruchem | TechboardElisa Mokany | SpeeDx Pty LtdKate Glazebrook | BlackbirdBill Trestrail | Black Nova Venture CapitalREGISTER NOW https://lnkd.in/gZ2iwYVvJOIN SBE Australia https://sbeaustralia.org/Highlights from the 2022 SBE Awards with 'Been There, Built That' category sponsor EY and prize sponsors AWS & IdeaSpies:  

Louise Larkin and team hold an annual inclusion event (Friend In Me Day) with thousands of children attending who have lived through pretty tough childhood experiences.  "We bring together children of all ages, nationalities, and abilities to dance, play, sing, create and most importantly, make lifelong friends and memories they will cherish.” Personally, what I also love about Friend In Me is that they didn’t stop at one idea for good.As Louise says: “Inclusion doesn’t stop when the party ends.” The team developed a practical workplace training program that helps business leaders be more welcoming, diverse, and inclusive. https://www.friendinme.org.au

The Optus hack reminds us that we all need to be more cyber vigilant. David Thodey provides practical suggestions including:> adding to risk register> running exercises > inspect to make sure defences are there> references work done by the AICD Article > https://bit.ly/3UN1E8FDr Maria Milosavljevic suggests > IDCare > https://bit.ly/3ftkTnyKate Carruthers provides practical steps for individuals >https://bit.ly/3fsUNkx Collin Penman reminds me that  Kyndryl #CloudSecurityAssessment - Detects Open and Public Exposed API's of customers. There's also a Monthly Service Monitoring that picks up the anomaly of large amount of data going out the door.

The Investor Group on Climate Change, (IGCC) whose members have more than $3 TRILLION in Australian funds under management, have announced the high priority policies that can unlock capital for Australia’s transition to net zero with a 75% reduction proposed by 2035. Climate risks and opportunities have become mainstream considerations in global capital markets. Now, trustees are focusing on how to invest in emissions-reducing assets, and how to protect  long-term returns from the physical impacts of climate change.As well as targeting 75% emissions reduction, the IGCC proposes the establishment of a National Transition AuthorityFull Report available: https://igcc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/IGCC-Policy-2025-PrioritiesWeb.pdf