Mike Cannon-Brookes commits Atlassian to net zero carbon emissions by 2050

Australian software giant Atlassian is working towards net zero carbon emissions target by 2050, co-founder Michael Cannon-Brookes says, on top of the company’s pledge to use 100% renewable energy by 2025.

Speaking to Leigh Sales on ABC TV’s 7.30 last night ahead of attending the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, Atlassian’s co-CEO said the move will be ” be good for our profitability over the long term” and involve looking at every aspect of the supply chain, including transport and data centres.

“Climate change is a huge problem affecting the global economy and businesses. Anything that makes our business more sustainable economically is good for our shareholders in the long term,” he said.

“Secondly, if you look at, you know, by the end of this week we’ll have five of the 10 largest companies in Australia, representing more than 20% of the market cap of the ASX, signing up to 100% renewable energy targets.

“A lot of those businesses are doing it both for positive climate reasons, but also because it is going to save those businesses money to move in that direction and that is part of the opportunity for businesses.”

Cannon-Brookes again took a shot at the Morrison government for not having “a credible climate or energy policy” that gives business the stability to invest, saying “they spent a week talking about whether almond milk should be called almond milk”.

“One of the challenges we’ve had in procuring renewable energy in a lot of places is where there’s no long-term government policy that people can believe in, that just means the risk premium and prices go up for that thing. It is very hard,” he said.

“From a concrete perspective, I think the Government should firstly set, as I said, concrete targets, both for renewable energy by 2035, and secondly, to how we’re going to get to a net zero carbon economy by 2050.”

The 2050 target is one also set by the United Nations to tackle climate change.

“There’s 86 other businesses alongside Atlassian signing up to the UN Global Compact for net zero,” Cannon-Brookes said

“All of those businesses I think would say this is an issue that they need to be taking a stronger stance on and that means they should be speaking out in a government vacuum.”

You can watch the full 7.30 interview here.