“To Stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires; To flout their striving idly is to welcome a harvest of Brutish crime and shameless lethargy in our very laps. The guiding of thought and the deft coordination of deed is at once the path of honor and humanity.” W.E.B. Dubois

The process of rendering is rich in melodic exchanges of forces and responses, influences and reasons, why’s and how’s. This process of rendering finds its purpose in the evolution of the intangible into something felt, a synthesis of the imagined into a reality, and the process of the idea to the experienced. Creating Climate Wealth Australia spoke wholly to the creation of solutions to climate change; its mission was to fully realize that reducing carbon emissions must be viscerally authentic, and no longer just a hopeful goal.

Delegates congregated from multiple industries – corporates, financiers, entrepreneurs, investors and scientists- to create wealth while achieving large-scale carbon reduction.  The Carbon War Room, a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington DC, collaborated with Future Journeys to bring the Global Summit Series to Sydney in July 2011. Due to the Summit’s global capacity (as it also occurred in Washington DC and London) Australia was able to amplify its impact on international markets and clean technology developments.

Co-founder of the Carbon War Room, Sir Richard Branson, attended the Summit as keynote speaker in order to reinforce his personal belief that successful and large-scale carbon reduction is truly the greatest entrepreneurial opportunity of our lifetime. Gigaton carbon reductions will be achieved by bringing private capital together with emerging technology providers and local and central governments. This will congruently result in environmental improvements and economic growth.

Creating Climate Wealth Australia was particularly unique because it offered diverse opportunity for delegates to embed and integrate sustainable strategies into mainstream businesses, and it was designed to catalyse tangible results. Delegates divided into seven tracks throughout the two-day Summit: Energy Efficiency, Aviation and Renewable Fuels, Capital Quest, Shipping Freight and Supply Chain, Distributed Generation, Construction Innovation, and Agriculture Food and Carbon.  The Australian government provided a rather interesting additional incentive for the working tracks, as Parliament implemented the highest carbon tax in the globe during the course of the Summit.

At the conclusion of the Summit representatives of each track made a presentation to all delegates outlining their intended, immediate course of action. Although delegates were given designated time to reflect and brainstorm on specific industries and solutions, ultimately, all ideas were shared in a very communaland receptive environment.

- Elizabeth Katharine James