Agenda
Event schedule
- 13 October - Conference Day One
- 14 October - Conference Day Two
Day/Stream
- Day/Stream
- 13 October - Conference Day One
- 14 October - Conference Day Two
Session Type
- Session Type
- Break
- Panel Discussion
- Case Study
Time
- Time
- Morning
- Midday
- Afternoon
Day One - Tuesday, 13 October
08:30
13 October - Conference Day One
Registration & Welcome Coffee
08:50
13 October - Conference Day One
Opening Remarks from the Chair
Speaker
Speakers
Clare Tubolets
CEO
SmartCreteCRC
SmartCreteCRC
09:00
13 October - Conference Day One
Framing Australia's decarbonisation challenge
Speaker
Speakers
Hon. Matt Kean
Chair
Climate Change Authority
Climate Change Authority
13 October - Conference Day One
Framing Australia's decarbonisation challenge
09:00
- Understand where Australia’s industrial emissions stand against legislated 2030 and 2050 targets
- Grasp the national economic opportunity available to industries that move now to lead in a world that is structurally repricing carbon risk
- Hear directly from the Chair of the Climate Change Authority on why regulatory certainty is the single non-negotiable precondition for long-horizon industrial investment
Speaker
Speakers
Hon. Matt Kean
Chair
Climate Change Authority
Climate Change Authority
Closing the gap between ambition and finance
09:30
13 October - Conference Day One
Panel discussion: Ensuring policy ambition has the desired effect
Speaker
Speakers
Tim Buckley
Director
Climate Energy Finance
Climate Energy Finance
Louie Trajkoski
Senior Director, Investment
Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility
Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility
Kim Curtain
Deputy Secretary, Energy, Climate Change & Sustainability
NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy & Water NSW
NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy & Water NSW
Dena Jacobs
Executive Director, Strategy, Planning & Innovation
Infrastructure NSW
Infrastructure NSW
Daniel Besley
Branch Head – Product & Industrial Emissions, Net Zero Industries Division
DCCEEW
DCCEEW
13 October - Conference Day One
Panel discussion: Ensuring policy ambition has the desired effect
09:30
- Interrogate whether current policy settings are genuinely moving capital or merely shifting compliance obligations on paper — with analysts who track the data, not the press releases
- Identify the gap between headline ambition and the practical price, procurement and regulatory signals that actually drive industrial investment decisions
- Debate what specific policy changes are needed for ambition to convert into delivered, independently verifiable emissions reductions
Speaker
Speakers
Tim Buckley
Director
Climate Energy Finance
Climate Energy Finance
Louie Trajkoski
Senior Director, Investment
Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility
Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility
Kim Curtain
Deputy Secretary, Energy, Climate Change & Sustainability
NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy & Water NSW
NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy & Water NSW
Dena Jacobs
Executive Director, Strategy, Planning & Innovation
Infrastructure NSW
Infrastructure NSW
Daniel Besley
Branch Head – Product & Industrial Emissions, Net Zero Industries Division
DCCEEW
DCCEEW
10:20
Break
13 October - Conference Day One
Morning Tea & Networking
Making the safeguard mechanism work for you
10:50
13 October - Conference Day One
An honest assessment of the first two years of safeguard
Speaker
Speakers
Matt McKee
Chief Researcher
Beyond Zero Emissions
13 October - Conference Day One
An honest assessment of the first two years of safeguard
10:50
- Receive an independent, evidence-based verdict on what the reformed Safeguard Mechanism has, and critically, has not, delivered since its 2023 redesign
- Benchmark where baselines, ACCU demand and compliance costs are actually landing versus the trajectory the scheme was designed to follow
- Examine the specific design reforms needed to keep the Safeguard environmentally credible
Speaker
Speakers
Matt McKee
Chief Researcher
Beyond Zero Emissions
11:20
Panel Discussion
13 October - Conference Day One
Panel discussion: Ensuring the safeguard mechanism review meets industry needs
Moderator
Peter Castellas
Founder
Climate Investor Forum
Climate Investor Forum
Speaker
Speakers
Marghanita Johnson
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Aluminium Council
Australian Aluminium Council
Mussaret Nagree
Chief Energy Transition, Environment & Government Relations Officer
Wesfarmers Chemicals Energy & Fertilisers
Wesfarmers Chemicals Energy & Fertilisers
Nadia Truninger
Sustainability Manager, Reporting, Continuous Manufacturing
Orica
Orica
Kathryn Smith
General Manager, Carbon Markets
Clean Energy Regulator
Clean Energy Regulator
13 October - Conference Day One
Panel Discussion
Panel discussion: Ensuring the safeguard mechanism review meets industry needs
11:20
- Hear from operators on the ground about how the Safeguard is landing for trade-exposed facilities, including where the compliance burden is hitting operations hardest
- Define what industry needs from the upcoming review to remain internationally competitive while meeting declining baselines
- Explore the practical fixes, banking provisions, borrowing arrangements and fairer treatment of EITE activities, that practitioners say would make the scheme genuinely workable
Moderator
Peter Castellas
Founder
Climate Investor Forum
Climate Investor Forum
Speaker
Speakers
Marghanita Johnson
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Aluminium Council
Australian Aluminium Council
Mussaret Nagree
Chief Energy Transition, Environment & Government Relations Officer
Wesfarmers Chemicals Energy & Fertilisers
Wesfarmers Chemicals Energy & Fertilisers
Nadia Truninger
Sustainability Manager, Reporting, Continuous Manufacturing
Orica
Orica
Kathryn Smith
General Manager, Carbon Markets
Clean Energy Regulator
Clean Energy Regulator
12:10
Break
13 October - Conference Day One
Networking Lunch
Where capital meets the coalface
13:10
13 October - Conference Day One
The bottlenecks slowing industrial decarbonisation
Speaker
Speakers
Tamara Sling Ronen
Environmental Director
Lion
Lion
13 October - Conference Day One
The bottlenecks slowing industrial decarbonisation
13:10
- Confront the real-world barriers that are stalling projects an operator has already committed capital to
- Learn how Lion prioritises and sequences abatement across a complex multi-site manufacturing footprint, and why the order of decisions matters as much as the decisions themselves
- Understand why, for many industrial operators, the binding constraint on progress is not ambition or capital, it is the external systems and approvals that sit beyond the factory gate
Speaker
Speakers
Tamara Sling Ronen
Environmental Director
Lion
Lion
13:40
Panel Discussion
13 October - Conference Day One
Panel discussion: How industry is making decarbonisation pathway decisions
Speaker
Speakers
Meredith Read
Head of Safety & Sustainability
DuluxGroup - Yates
DuluxGroup - Yates
Nathan Juchau
Manager, Sustainability
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
Michael Kilgariff
Chief Executive Officer
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia
Diane Niu
Director, Stakeholder Engagement
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia
Fiona Murfitt
Vice President, Sustainability
Evolution Mining
Evolution Mining
13 October - Conference Day One
Panel Discussion
Panel discussion: How industry is making decarbonisation pathway decisions
13:40
- Discover how leading operators are making the hard call between electrification, fuel switching and offsets, and what drives the choice when all three remain on the table
- Examine the internal business cases, board governance and organisational structures that sit behind committing a company to a specific decarbonisation pathway
- Extract hard lessons directly from projects already underway, including honest accounts of what has been paused, descoped or abandoned and why
Speaker
Speakers
Meredith Read
Head of Safety & Sustainability
DuluxGroup - Yates
DuluxGroup - Yates
Nathan Juchau
Manager, Sustainability
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
Michael Kilgariff
Chief Executive Officer
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia
Diane Niu
Director, Stakeholder Engagement
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia
Fiona Murfitt
Vice President, Sustainability
Evolution Mining
Evolution Mining
14:20
Break
13 October - Conference Day One
Afternoon tea & Networking
Turning decisions into delivery
14:50
13 October - Conference Day One
Just transition: Workforce, communities and the social contract
Speaker
Speakers
Grahame Irwin
Regional Workforce Transition Officer
Dept. of Employment & Workplace Relations
Dept. of Employment & Workplace Relations
13 October - Conference Day One
Just transition: Workforce, communities and the social contract
14:50
- Understand how the Department of Employment is planning for the workforce and skills demands of the industrial transition
- Learn about the Government’s commitment to supporting regional communities and workers whose livelihoods are bound to emissions-intensive industries facing structural change
- Explore why the department sees the social contract as the essential foundation for sustaining public consent for industrial decarbonisation
Speaker
Speakers
Grahame Irwin
Regional Workforce Transition Officer
Dept. of Employment & Workplace Relations
Dept. of Employment & Workplace Relations
15:20
13 October - Conference Day One
Can Australian industry win in a decarbonising Asia?
Speaker
Speakers
James Bowen
Lead Analyst
IEEFA
IEEFA
13 October - Conference Day One
Can Australian industry win in a decarbonising Asia?
15:20
- Track how demand for green steel, aluminium and other industrial products is shifting across Australia’s key Asian export markets
- Identify where Australia holds a genuine comparative advantage in low-carbon industrial supply chains, and where competitor nations are currently out-investing and out-positioning us
- Decode what capital allocation and trade flow data signal about which Australian industries are positioned to compete
Speaker
Speakers
James Bowen
Lead Analyst
IEEFA
IEEFA
15:50
13 October - Conference Day One
Chair closing remarks & End of day one
16:00
13 October - Conference Day One
Networking drinks
Day Two - Wednesday, 14 October
08:30
14 October - Conference Day Two
Welcome coffee
08:50
14 October - Conference Day Two
Opening remarks from the chair
Speaker
Speakers
Jackie McKeon
Program Director
Business Renewables Centre
Business Renewables Centre
Powering the transition
09:00
14 October - Conference Day Two
Managing energy volatility and procurement risk
Speaker
Speakers
Dani Alexander
CEO
NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub
NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub
14 October - Conference Day Two
Managing energy volatility and procurement risk
09:00
- Discover how industrial energy users are deploying smarter procurement strategies and contract structures to manage price volatility, with examples from facilities already running these models
- Understand the role PPAs, demand flexibility programmes and on-site generation are playing in de-risking energy supply for manufacturers navigating the grid transition
- Learn how to align an energy procurement strategy with your decarbonisation pathway without taking on energy price or volume risk that the business cannot absorb
Speaker
Speakers
Dani Alexander
CEO
NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub
NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub
09:30
Case Study
14 October - Conference Day Two
Case study: From Ambition to Delivery: Decarbonising Industry at Scale
Speaker
Speakers
Bronwyn Grieve
Director of Global Sustainability & External Affairs
Fortescue
Fortescue
14 October - Conference Day Two
Case Study
Case study: From Ambition to Delivery: Decarbonising Industry at Scale
09:30
- How Fortescue is translating decarbonisation ambition into practical action across operations, energy and infrastructure
- The policy, regulatory and market conditions required to support industrial decarbonisation at scale
- Lessons learned from progressing large-scale transition initiatives while maintaining competitiveness and operational performance
Speaker
Speakers
Bronwyn Grieve
Director of Global Sustainability & External Affairs
Fortescue
Fortescue
10:00
14 October - Conference Day Two
Power-to-X: Building the innovation ecosystem for industrial decarbonisation
Speaker
Speakers
Thomas Gao
Senior Manager
NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Office
NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Office
14 October - Conference Day Two
Power-to-X: Building the innovation ecosystem for industrial decarbonisation
10:00
- Examine the role Power-to-X pathways (green hydrogen, e-fuels and sustainable aviation fuel) can play in decarbonising hard-to-abate industrial and transport sectors
- Explore what it takes to build the innovation ecosystem around P2X — from public agency strategy and R&D through to cross-sector alliances and industry partnerships
- Walk away with a view of the collaboration, policy and investment settings needed to move P2X from pilot projects to genuine industrial scale
Speaker
Speakers
Thomas Gao
Senior Manager
NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Office
NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Office
10:30
Break
14 October - Conference Day Two
Morning Tea & networking
14 October - Conference Day Two
Break
Morning Tea & networking
10:30
11:00
Panel Discussion
14 October - Conference Day Two
Panel discussion: Bridging the scale gap - Why industrial technologies stall after pilot stage
Speaker
Speakers
Zoe Parkin
Associate Director
Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Joel Coward
Global Manager, Sustainability & ESG
Bradken
Bradken
Heath Anderson
Group Manager, Sustainability
Qube
Qube
Zahra Jabiri
Head of Operation – On Grid Power Transmission
APA
APA
Andrew Fang
VP Projects & Sustainability
Meranti Green Steel
Meranti Green Steel
14 October - Conference Day Two
Panel Discussion
Panel discussion: Bridging the scale gap - Why industrial technologies stall after pilot stage
11:00
- Investigate why technologies that perform brilliantly at pilot stage so consistently fail to reach commercial scale, told from the perspective of developers, investors and industrial customers who have lived it
- Map the funding gaps, offtake barriers and risk allocation problems that trap industrial technologies in the commercialisation valley of death
- Define the concrete commitments that technology developers, industrial customers and capital providers each need to make to move technologies from pilot to commercial reality
Speaker
Speakers
Zoe Parkin
Associate Director
Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Joel Coward
Global Manager, Sustainability & ESG
Bradken
Bradken
Heath Anderson
Group Manager, Sustainability
Qube
Qube
Zahra Jabiri
Head of Operation – On Grid Power Transmission
APA
APA
Andrew Fang
VP Projects & Sustainability
Meranti Green Steel
Meranti Green Steel
11:40
14 October - Conference Day Two
Thermal energy storage for industrial process heat
Speaker
Speakers
Will Reeves
Investment Manager
ARENA
ARENA
14 October - Conference Day Two
Thermal energy storage for industrial process heat
11:40
- Assess the current commercial readiness of thermal energy storage for industrial process heat, and where ARENA’s investment thesis says the technology is heading over the next three to five years
- Understand exactly how ARENA structures its co-investment to de-risk first-of-a-kind industrial heat projects, including what the agency takes on, what it expects in return, and how deals are sequenced
- Hear directly from an ARENA Investment Manager what makes a thermal energy project fundable, and what the pipeline of projects should look like for proponents considering an application
Speaker
Speakers
Will Reeves
Investment Manager
ARENA
ARENA
Winning the race for capital
12:10
14 October - Conference Day Two
Capital discipline in transition: Balancing cost, carbon and competitiveness
Speaker
Speakers
Tony Wood
Senior Fellow
Grattan Institute
Grattan Institute
14 October - Conference Day Two
Capital discipline in transition: Balancing cost, carbon and competitiveness
12:10
- Understand how to weigh decarbonisation spend against cost and competitiveness imperatives without overcommitting capital
- Define the policy and market conditions that are genuinely necessary for disciplined capital allocation
- Debate where public and private capital should each bear the burden of industrial decarbonisation
Speaker
Speakers
Tony Wood
Senior Fellow
Grattan Institute
Grattan Institute
12:40
Break
14 October - Conference Day Two
Networking lunch
13:40
Panel Discussion
14 October - Conference Day Two
Panel discussion: Making industrial decarbonisation investable
Moderator
Eric Kimmel
Manager, Industry Partnerships & Funding
Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy & Water NSW
Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy & Water NSW
Speaker
Speakers
Emily Whelan
Associate Director, ESG
National Reconstruction Fund Corporation
National Reconstruction Fund Corporation
Paolo Bevilacqua
Group Head of Sustainability
Frasers Property
Frasers Property
Anoop Thakur
General Manager, Procurement & Sustainability
Orora Group
Orora Group
Mark Couchman
Domestic Lead – Institutional
Export Finance Australia
Export Finance Australia
Karen Brown
Executive Director, Climate Transition
ANZ
ANZ
14 October - Conference Day Two
Panel Discussion
Panel discussion: Making industrial decarbonisation investable
13:40
- Learn what lenders and institutional investors require before they will commit capital to industrial decarbonisation projects in the current market
- Master how to structure industrial abatement projects so the risk-return profile clears the investment threshold for mainstream debt and equity
- Discover how blended finance structures, government guarantees and contracted offtake arrangements are being used to close the financing gap on deals that otherwise cannot reach financial close
Moderator
Eric Kimmel
Manager, Industry Partnerships & Funding
Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy & Water NSW
Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy & Water NSW
Speaker
Speakers
Emily Whelan
Associate Director, ESG
National Reconstruction Fund Corporation
National Reconstruction Fund Corporation
Paolo Bevilacqua
Group Head of Sustainability
Frasers Property
Frasers Property
Anoop Thakur
General Manager, Procurement & Sustainability
Orora Group
Orora Group
Mark Couchman
Domestic Lead – Institutional
Export Finance Australia
Export Finance Australia
Karen Brown
Executive Director, Climate Transition
ANZ
ANZ
Decarbonise without disruption
14:30
14 October - Conference Day Two
How to stay operational while decarbonising
Speaker
Speakers
Rosalinda Bustamante
Global Sustainability Reporting Manager
Dyno Nobel
Dyno Nobel
14 October - Conference Day Two
How to stay operational while decarbonising
14:30
- Learn how Dyno Nobel is decarbonising a continuous, safety-critical explosives manufacturing process without disrupting the production reliability that customers and regulators demand
- Discover how to sequence technology upgrades and abatement trials around real plant availability windows
- Extract lessons from a practitioner who has had to keep a complex industrial operation fully running while managing multiple concurrent abatement projects through design, procurement and commissioning
Speaker
Speakers
Rosalinda Bustamante
Global Sustainability Reporting Manager
Dyno Nobel
Dyno Nobel
15:00
14 October - Conference Day Two
Making decarbonisation business as usual
Speaker
Speakers
Evan Smith
National Sustainability Manager
Holcim Australia
Holcim Australia
14 October - Conference Day Two
Making decarbonisation business as usual
15:00
- Learn how Holcim Australia has shifted decarbonisation from a standalone sustainability programme into a core operational discipline embedded in how the business runs day to day
- Discover how emissions accountability has been built into Holcim’s commercial, procurement and production decision-making
- Understand how one of Australia’s hardest-to-abate manufacturers is building the internal culture, capability and incentive structures needed to sustain decarbonisation progress over decades, not just years
Speaker
Speakers
Evan Smith
National Sustainability Manager
Holcim Australia
Holcim Australia
15:30
14 October - Conference Day Two
Afternoon tea & Networking
16:00
14 October - Conference Day Two
Building supply chains that can carry the transition
Speaker
Speakers
Heather Bone
Board Director
Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA)
Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA)
14 October - Conference Day Two
Building supply chains that can carry the transition
16:00
- Explore how Team Global Express is tackling decarbonisation across both upstream and downstream logistics, coordinating change across a supply chain that spans hundreds of customer and supplier relationships
- Discover how to engage suppliers and customers to jointly reduce shared, scope-spanning emissions, including the commercial frameworks and data-sharing agreements that make collaboration viable
- Understand the data infrastructure and governance structures needed to hold a distributed supply chain accountable to its transition commitments
Speaker
Speakers
Heather Bone
Board Director
Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA)
Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA)
16:30
14 October - Conference Day Two
Scope 3: Navigating the next frontier of industrial accountability
Speaker
Speakers
Scott Edwards
Associate Director Sustainability
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
14 October - Conference Day Two
Scope 3: Navigating the next frontier of industrial accountability
16:30
- Confront why Scope 3 represents the largest and most intractable component of the industrial emissions challenge, told by a practitioner managing value-chain accountability across one of the world’s most complex beverage supply chains
- Acquire practical measurement approaches and supplier engagement methods for cutting value-chain emissions even when primary data from suppliers is incomplete, inconsistent or missing entirely
- Understand how evolving disclosure expectations, from AASB S2 to customer due diligence requirements, are reshaping emissions accountability for industrial operators far beyond their own factory gate
Speaker
Speakers
Scott Edwards
Associate Director Sustainability
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
The Road Beyond 2026
17:00
14 October - Conference Day Two
The next 24 months of policy, technology and funding
Speaker
Speakers
Yvette Manolas
Founder | Senior Strategic Advisor
Yvette Manolas Consulting | MiQ
Yvette Manolas Consulting | MiQ
14 October - Conference Day Two
The next 24 months of policy, technology and funding
17:00
- Anticipate the specific policy decisions, technology milestones and funding programme changes most likely to reshape the industrial decarbonisation landscape in the next 24 months and beyond
- Track where Australia’s most strategically positioned operators and investors are placing their bets right now, and what they are seeing that others are not yet acting on
- Leave with a curated, practical watch-list of policy signals, funding announcements and technology decisions to monitor
Speaker
Speakers
Yvette Manolas
Founder | Senior Strategic Advisor
Yvette Manolas Consulting | MiQ
Yvette Manolas Consulting | MiQ
17:30
14 October - Conference Day Two
Chair closing remarks & end of conference
Day/Stream
- Day/Stream
- 13 October - Conference Day One
- 14 October - Conference Day Two
- 13 October - Conference Day One
- 14 October - Conference Day Two
Download the brochure for more information on the full agenda and speaker line-up
