Engineers Australia
Engineers Australia, established in 1919, is a nonprofit organization and the leading professional association for engineers in Australia, boasting over 130,000 members as of 2024. With its national office located in Canberra, the organization functions under a royal charter and is governed by a National Council and Congress. It serves as a national forum for all engineering disciplines, aiming to advance engineering science, set professional standards, and promote ethical practices within the field. Engineers Australia is also involved in educational development and recognizes significant achievements through awards.
The organization advocates for a coordinated governmental approach to tackle environmental challenges, particularly in areas such as transportation, energy, and greenhouse gas management. Engineers Australia emphasizes the importance of addressing climate change by supporting greenhouse gas reduction efforts, highlighting the need for Australia to adopt meaningful emissions reduction targets. The group's National Engineering Registration Board serves as a consumer protection measure, ensuring that practicing engineers prioritize the public interest in their work. Through its initiatives, Engineers Australia seeks to foster sustainability while promoting security and social harmony.
Engineers Australia
- DATE: Established 1919
Mission
Engineers Australia advocates a comprehensive, coordinated governmental approach to counter environmental degradation. It particularly wants to recast infrastructure, such as transportation, energy, and greenhouse gas (GHG) management, in order to ensure security, prosperity, and social harmony while fostering sustainability.
Its royal charter naming it as the Institution of Engineers, Australia, the nonprofit organization is best known simply as Engineers Australia. It is governed by its National Council and Congress chaired by its president, has a national office in the capital (Canberra) headed by its chief executive, and maintains nine state and territorial divisions. It is affiliated as well with colleges, national committees, technical societies, and engineering interest groups. By 2024, the group had more than 130,000 members.
Engineers Australia serves as a national forum for promoting all engineering disciplines. Specifically, it seeks to advance engineering science, set standards for chartering engineers, cultivate educational development among its members, instill professional ethics and integrity, and recognize achievements through awards. Its National Engineering Registration Board, established in 1994, is a consumer-protection measure to ensure that enrolled engineers use their knowledge in the public interest.
Significance for Climate Change
Engineers Australia issued a media statement in June 2007, defining its support for a GHG reduction effort that progressively decreases annual emissions. The statement quotes the group’s national president, Rolfe Hartley:
The collective science and ongoing research firmly point to the need to reduce global greenhouse emissions by 2050 by between 40 and 80 percent. Any further delays in determining a target, rather than getting on with solutions, is more wasted time that we don’t have. A target in this range requires only a minimal reduction in emissions of about 1 percent per year. While we need to balance the impact of meaningful action on global warming on our economy and employment opportunities, the fact remains that a slightly slower growth of the Australian economy stands in stark contrast to what may happen if the economy becomes smaller under the impacts of climate change…. While it would be naïve to expect global consensus on emission reduction programs in the short-term, it would be equally dangerous for Australia to continue to procrastinate and then opt for emissions reduction programs that lack substance and rigour. Until wider agreement on a global emissions strategy is achieved, Australia could go a long way towards meeting a meaningful emissions target through vigorously pursuing energy efficiency approaches which the International Energy Agency believes could achieve almost half of the needed emissions.
Bibliography
"About Us." Engineers Australia, 21 Oct. 2024, www.engineersaustralia.org.au/about-us. Accessed 26 Dec. 2024.
"Engineers Australia: Home." Engineers Australia. Engineers Australia, 2024, www.engineersaustralia.org.au/. Accessed 26 Dec. 2024.
Aliento, Willow. "Engineers Australia Commits to a Low-Carbon Future." Fifth Estate. Fifth Estate, 27 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Climate Change Policy. Barton: Engineers Australia, 2014. Print.
Kaspura, Andre. Australia's Energy Future: Australian Energy Policy and Climate Change. Canberra: Engineers Australia, 2007. Print.