Wind farms, solar farms, transmission lines and new energy infrastructure are essential to Australia’s shift towards a zero-emissions energy system. Yet as investment accelerates, so too can community resistance, planning disputes and opposition to projects that are critical to the country’s energy future.

So how do we bring communities with us?

That question will take centre stage at the 2026 Sustainability Summit in the panel Community Engagement and the Renewable Energy Transition, where leading voices from climate finance, sustainable design and the built environment will explore one of the most consequential challenges facing Australia’s energy transformation: How to build the social licence needed to deliver renewable infrastructure fairly, effectively and at scale.

Social licence is the missing piece

For Tim Buckley, Director of Climate Energy Finance, community engagement is not a box to tick at the end of a project. It is fundamental to overcoming the approval barriers that are currently slowing investment in Australia’s renewable energy infrastructure.

“Building social licence is critical to reducing the approvals roadblocks that are massively undermining the much-needed step-up in renewable energy infrastructure investments across Australia,” Buckley says.

For Buckley, the case for accelerating the transition has become even stronger as global geopolitical instability highlights the importance of energy independence.

“The US war on Iran has reinforced yet another reason to accelerate Australia’s domestic zero-emissions energy solutions – energy independence.”

But achieving that transformation will require more than national policy and investment. It will require trust at a regional and local level — including meaningful engagement with First Nations communities.

“We need to build regional community and FN trust to accelerate this much-needed energy system transformation,” Buckley says. “Regional communities need to share the benefits, not just the costs.”

The idea of benefit sharing will be a crucial part of the panel discussion. If regional communities are being asked to host infrastructure that serves the broader population, the conversation needs to extend beyond managing objections to creating genuine partnerships and tangible local benefits.

Challenging the politics of opposition

Dick Clarke, founder of Envirotecture and head judge of the 2026 Sustainability Awards, brings another perspective to the conversation: Australia cannot afford to underestimate the scale of infrastructure required to complete the transition.

“The transition to renewable energy is behind schedule so far as the planet’s ecosystem is concerned,” Clarke says, pointing to the equally critical need to distribute renewable electricity from where it is generated to where it is needed.

Much of Australia’s existing energy infrastructure was built decades ago. It has become accepted, in Clarke’s view, largely because “it’s there”.

But the energy system of the future requires something different and significantly more infrastructure.

The challenge is that communities can be far less accepting of new infrastructure than previous generations were when major power stations, transmission towers and powerlines were being built.

Clarke argues that some of the opposition has also been amplified by political polarisation and media commentary, turning renewable energy projects into symbols of broader cultural and political divisions.

Yet he believes there is another way of looking at the infrastructure itself.

Can infrastructure become part of the landscape?

What if renewable energy infrastructure was not automatically regarded as visual pollution but as an opportunity for thoughtful design?

Clarke challenges the assumption that infrastructure is inherently ugly, arguing that wind turbines can possess “a graceful beauty”, solar farms can create a “rhythmic pattern”, and even transmission infrastructure could be designed with visual appeal as well as functionality.

It is a provocative proposition and an important one for a country facing a massive infrastructure build-out.

Rather than asking communities simply to tolerate new energy infrastructure, could projects be designed and communicated in ways that help people understand their place within the landscape?

And could better design, combined with genuine community participation, transform perceptions of infrastructure from unwanted imposition to something communities can take pride in?

Engaging with resistance to change

For Clarke, however, design is only part of the solution.

“Behind all of this is the need for governments and corporations to engage with the natural human tendency to resist change.”

That recognition could be one of the most important themes of the panel.

Community opposition cannot simply be dismissed as ignorance or NIMBYism. People have legitimate concerns about landscapes, property, local environments and the pace at which change is occurring. Effective engagement means understanding those concerns — while also making a compelling case for why the transition is necessary.

Clarke argues that the need for change has historically been poorly articulated, leaving space for misinformation and denialist arguments to take hold.

The answer, he suggests, is to clearly communicate the net benefit of the transition.

That includes tackling the climate crisis and restoring Australia’s position as a global leader on climate action; providing financial benefits to landowners who host renewable infrastructure; recognising that agricultural activities can often continue alongside renewable energy projects; and exploring ways to share financial benefits with neighbouring landowners whose views or surroundings may be affected.

From consultation to partnership

These perspectives make Community Engagement and the Renewable Energy Transition more than a discussion about how to manage opposition.

It is a conversation about how Australia can fundamentally rethink the relationship between infrastructure developers and the communities that host them.

The next phase of the energy transition will require enormous investment in generation and transmission. The question is whether that infrastructure can be delivered through a model that creates genuine regional partnerships, respects First Nations interests, shares economic benefits and gives communities a meaningful voice in shaping the places where they live.

For Buckley, building trust is essential to unlocking the investment Australia needs.

For Clarke, the challenge is also cultural: we need to make the case for change, confront misinformation and reconsider the way we see infrastructure in our landscapes.

Together, their perspectives point towards a future in which community engagement isn’t an obstacle to renewable energy delivery but one of its greatest enablers.

The conversation Australia needs now

The renewable energy transition is not simply an engineering challenge. It is a social, economic, political and design challenge, and its success will depend on whether Australians can build enough common ground to support the infrastructure required.

At the 2026 Sustainability Summit, Tim Buckley and Dick Clarke will bring these questions into sharp focus, examining why communities resist change, what genuine engagement looks like, and how governments, developers and communities can work together to ensure the benefits of the transition are widely shared.

If Australia is serious about accelerating its clean energy future, the conversation cannot stop at how we build the infrastructure. We also need to ask how we build the trust to make it possible.

Join Community Engagement and the Renewable Energy Transition at the 2026 Sustainability Summit for a timely and essential conversation about winning the social licence for Australia’s energy future.

Image: Envato

Early Bird registrations currently save 30%, while teams of three or more can save 50% on registrations. View the full Summit program and register today.

Architecture & Design Team

Let’s connect!