Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Atlassian Mike Cannon-Brookes says climate is Australia’s next big employer and Australia needs people to lead the charge by choosing a climate job as their next career shift. 

The Careers for Net Zero campaign launch in Melbourne connected students, educators, policy makers and industry leaders to learn more about how their skills can make a difference in the transition to a clean economy. 

Mike Cannon-Brookes gave a keynote at the event and said Australia has an incredible opportunity to be the global leader in the transition towards clean energy.  

“The transition must be about spending time on starting things and creating new opportunities and new infrastructure,” he said.  

“We need more time spent on creating solar farms and batteries and the infrastructure grid that we need. This is so that we build a future that sets up our country well beyond our lifetime.” 

Engineers Australia is supporting the campaign with CEO Romilly Madew AO also presenting on a panel. She said net-zero targets will only be achieved with sufficient engineering capacity and capability. 

Engineers are the special ingredient in this whole discussion that we are having today, Ms Madew said.  

“It is across the whole net zero transition that engineers are required to help with our national priorities of clean energy, infrastructure, AUKUS and many other priorities.” 

“We are excited about engineering. It's such a fabulous career and there are so many different career options.” 

Want to help build the clean economy workforce? Check out the clean economy career explorer and hear from other climate champions. You can also explore all things engineering and climate at the Climate Smart Engineering Conference in Melbourne this month.