A 'passive' profession finally stirs on climate change

Averil Astall, a recent civil engineer graduate, is impatient to shake up the profession she has only just entered, particularly when it comes to tackling what she sees as a climate emergency.

"Engineers are quite passive in their views and opinions," the University of Melbourne graduate, says. "That's despite their position in society, and their skills and knowledge to do something [about climate change]."

Averil Astall at the World Engineers Convention last week in Melbourne.

Ms Astall is one of more than 1500 Australian engineers and some 130 firms to have signed up in just eight weeks to a 12-point declaration by the engineering industry to tackle global warming and biodiversity loss.

Engineering academies are among those signing on, including the University of NSW's School of Engineering - the largest in Australia - as well as similar schools in Deakin , Edith Cowan and Griffith universities. Some 15 more universities are likely to sign up to the declaration by year's end, Lizzie Brown, an organiser said.

Two-thirds of Australia's direct greenhouse gas emissions are connected to engineering activities ranging from mining and construction to the built environment, according to Engineers Declare Australia.

"As such, engineering teams have a responsibility to actively support the transition of our economy towards a low-carbon future," the group says.

Steps include advocating for design practices "that respect ecological limits", learning more from indigenous practices, and minimising waste.

GHD, an engineering consultancy, is among the groups being targeted by engineers over its work for the Adani coal mine in Queensland.Credit: AAP

Unlike other professions such as law, medicine or architecture, engineering has mostly kept a low profile in Australia in the climate debate. Notable exceptions include environmental and renewable energy engineers.

However, the prospect of "secondary boycotts" by activists opposed to plans by the mining company Adani to open up a huge new coal province in Queensland have lately placed engineers in the spotlight.

A string of councils, including Byron and Sydney's Inner West, have vowed to steer spending away from engineering firms such as GHD and Downer if they do work for Adani's Carmichael mine.

UNSW Engineering's dean Mark Hoffman said support among leaders at his school for the declaration was "unanimous", even among its fossil fuel-related faculty.

Still, there is some disagreement about how strong a stance engineers should take.

Professor Hoffman, for instance, said it was was important all engineering sectors took into account the environmental effects of their work.

"The mining and gas industries recognise the fast-growing imperative to create technologies and processes to ensure that their industries’ contribution to the economy, for both jobs and growth, is environmentally sustainable," he said.

UNSW Professor Mark Hoffman says climate change must be addressed by engineers, including in the mining industry.Credit: AAP

However, Aref Taleb, a third-year renewable energy engineering student who signed the declaration, says such an approach doesn't go far enough.

"The university should one hundred per cent reject any money from fossil fuels and should completely divest from all fossil fuels at the same time," he said. "The university is supposed to represent the future and the possibilities of tomorrow, so to continue to invest in the industries that are destroying that future is just morally wrong.

"We would 100 per cent boycott companies doing work with coal, oil and gas and refuse to work for them," Mr Taleb added.

Ms Astall said it "was a tough time for graduates without a lot of experience to be taking a great stand", and rule out working for companies such as GHD.

Still, if the firm was involved with operations such as Adani's, "it definitely pushes the company down my list", she said.