Thank you so much, Beverley, for the kind introduction. And thank you all for the warm welcome.

It’s a treat to join President Asakawa here today, along with my dear friend, Dr. Fatih Birol.

And I’m honored to take the stage after Prime Minister Albanese.

I speak on behalf of the Biden administration in saying that we look forward to working with the new Australian government.

The interests that the United States and Australia share offer such fertile ground for collaboration—from our unshakeable belief that the world flourishes when democracy and self-determination flourish, to our status as energy exporters.

We need that in the days ahead.

The United States, Australia, and indeed, nations worldwide face three crises:

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and COVID-19’s continuing constraints on supply chains—both of which have put growing financial burdens on households and businesses alike…

And, of course, climate change.

The torrential rainfall that has submerged parts of Sydney, the dangerous heatwave spreading across the Southwestern United States, the ever-lengthening wildfire seasons threatening both of our nations each year…

We know these are not blameless coincidences of weather, but the consequences of our carbon pollution.

We know these extreme weather events will keep rising in frequency and intensity unless and until we deal with that carbon pollution.

And we know time is running out for us to do it.

War, COVID-19, climate change. All different in nature, but all pointing to real weaknesses in fossil fuels, and the strengths in clean energy.

The case for the clean energy transition has never been clearer.

In the face of rising petrol and natural gas prices, clean energy offers affordability.

As fossil energy producers struggle to meet demand, clean energy offers a diversity of sources that can generate reliable supply.

In response to petrodictators weaponizing energy markets, clean energy offers homegrown security and greater independence.

As my Irish counterpart, Minister Ryan, has noted at gatherings of the IEA, no one can hold the sun or the wind hostage.

I’ll add on to that: we can all use the sun and the wind to great benefit. And the United States and Australia are uniquely suited to do so.

Just as we were both blessed with natural resources that enabled us to build, and lead, the fossil energy economy, we have so many advantages that position us to lead on clean energy.

Ample sunshine throughout the year. Vast stretches of land for solar and windfarms. Long coastlines for offshore wind. Rich geology. Skilled workforces. Strong infrastructure and sound trade relations.

Today, we are fossil energy exporters to neighbors and partners around the world.

Tomorrow, we can use our inherent advantages to become clean energy superpowers—exporting clean hydrogen, solar panels and racks and trackers, wind turbines, small modular reactors, and the critical materials and components that make up these technologies.

In fact, that work has already started.

So our task is to buckle down. To accelerate the clean energy transition—as quickly and responsibly as possible.

And let me emphasize that word, “responsibly.”

Because the clean energy transition must be a managed transition if it is to succeed.

We must manage the imperative of the carbon budget with the reality of modern energy demands.

That requires some essential acknowledgements:

We have to pair rapid deployment and rising clean energy capacity with plans for lowering use of fossil fuels over time.

Even at our boldest and most ambitious, this is not a project we can complete overnight.

We will not be able to flip a switch and complete the clean energy transition.

And if, along the way, our people flip a switch and find they can’t get power, the entire effort will be in jeopardy—and the most vulnerable among us will bear the worst consequences. Not just the immediate impacts of power loss, but the long-term costs of climate catastrophe.

The way to accelerate the transition, then, is through addition.

That means growing the energy pie to better meet the world’s needs—and growing it clean.

It means directing investment into clean energy infrastructure—added capacity and the transmission needed to move it around the grid.

It means planning reasonable sunsets for existing fossil energy capacity.

And it means we need industry to get involved.

This transition does not have to spell the end for today’s fossil fuel companies. Their products will continue to play a role in the years ahead. And their assets, experience, and skilled workforce will play a role for decades to come.

As the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made clear, the only plausible pathways to net-zero involve carbon management solutions—carbon capture and storage, direct air capture, so forth.

These fossil fuel companies can stake out a place on the other side of the transition by helping us pioneer those solutions.

By diversifying into broader energy companies, they can claim new opportunities to thrive.

It will take planning far past next quarter, and even next year. Planning to the next decade and beyond.

And it will take significant investment.

But the Biden administration is ready to work with private sector partners willing to help manage this clean energy transition.

We suspect our government is not alone in that regard. After all, that collaboration isn’t just about a given company. It’s about their employees.

Fossil energy workers have powered our country, and the world economy, for a century.

We owe them a great debt for that. And we recognize the uneasiness clean energy inspires in many of them.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

These workers have the skills and expertise we need to stand up new clean energy sectors—hydrogen, carbon capture, critical mineral extraction, advanced nuclear, and more.

These sectors will create countless new, good-paying jobs around the world that will be in demand for decades to come. Quality jobs that offer the chance to build careers.

The global market for clean energy technologies is projected to reach $23 trillion by the end of this decade—at a minimum.

This market could be the most powerful engine for economic growth that the world has ever seen.

And we can use it to ensure that the clean energy transition is an equitable transition.

An equitable transition that lifts up working class communities worried about getting left behind.

An equitable transition that rights the wrongs of the fossil energy economy borne all too often on the backs of our most vulnerable residents.

An equitable transition that expands opportunity—not just through new jobs and economic growth, but through greater access to reliable, affordable, resilient power, from our biggest cities to our smallest and most remote towns.

We know that this won’t happen on its own. It requires an intentional effort, with tailored policies.

Which is why the North Star of President Biden’s climate and clean energy agenda—or in this hemisphere, the Southern Cross—is his Justice 40 initiative. We’ve set the goal of directing 40 percent of the benefits from our investments in clean energy to the communities that ought to be at the front of the line.  

Since the day President Biden took office, his administration has worked tirelessly to move the United States farther and faster along this clean, managed, equitable transition.

We’ve prioritized clean energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment, and started issuing loan guarantees to major clean energy projects once again.

We’ve crafted the beginnings of a clean energy industrial strategy that identifies our biggest job creation opportunities and our most glaring needs.

We’ve formed public-private partnerships and rallied auto companies like Ford, GM, and Stellantis to align with the administration’s clean energy targets.

And with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, President Biden secured tens of billions of dollars to invest in some of the core elements of our clean energy future:

A modernized grid with expanded transmission capacity. A national network of EV charging stations. A reliable, secure supply chain for battery technologies. The largest-ever federal push to commercialize next-generation clean energy technologies—just to name a few.

It also wasn’t lost on us when Prime Minister Albanese, Minister Bowen, and their team recently announced their own ambitious climate and clean energy plans for Australia.

We applaud them. This moment demands bold, clear vision from the leaders of our nations.

Ultimately, though, the clean energy transition is bigger than any one country.

None of us can decarbonize all on our own—not to the extent we need, or at the speed necessary.

And not while certain other nations see the clean energy transition as yet another opportunity to dominate markets, to create bottlenecks, and to stifle economic growth in competing countries.

If we want to build a clean economy that avoids the vulnerabilities we see today, as Putin weaponizes gas in Europe today, we have to work together.

We have to collaborate.

We have to collaborate to speed the development of new technologies and share novel innovations. We have to collaborate to spread them across the global market. Most of all, we have to collaborate to diversify our supply chains and protect them from outside threats.

That’s why international engagement is a central piece of our clean energy strategy.

This is the moment to deepen our work with partners around the world—and get this right.

To rally the countries that share our values.

To make the case that fossil fuels leave us with untenable vulnerabilities, that clean energy enhances our security, and that if we want to get this transition right, we need the democracies of the world to join efforts together—including, of course, our allies in the Pacific.

And our relationship with Australia, in particular, is key.

Right now, the United States and Australia are asking many of the same questions:

How do we get hydrogen to reach its full potential? How do we unleash the EV market? Ready our electric grids so they’re suited for large-scale clean energy deployment? Secure reliable, sustainable, and—equally as important—responsible sources of critical minerals?

That last one is so key: How do we build and scale capacity for critical mineral mining and refining to create resilient, diversified supply chains for ourselves and our allies and partners?

I believe—and President Biden believes—that we would be better served by finding the answers together.

And I fully intend to return to Washington with an agreement fit for the 21^st century. One that uses those essential clean energy supply chains to tie our nations closer together than ever.

Prime Minister Robert Menzies once commented to President Lyndon Johnson, “We may be small, but we are friends, and it is a good thing to have friends, great or small.”

He would be awed at the great heights his country would later reach. He would no doubt be pleased to know that the friendship between our nations is poised to grow greater still.

And perhaps he would take satisfaction in how true his message rings today, in the face of these historic, urgent crises, and our shared challenge of building an economy fit for the future.

We will need our friends to make this work.

And Australia and the United States, along with all democracies all over the world, will always be friends.

Thank you.