The recent Liberal win at the Federal election has unleashed a quarry of concern from the nation, with climate change being a major topic.

Now ex-Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten was consistently vocal about the planet throughout his campaign. Following a primary school visit earlier this month, he tweeted “If we don’t take action on climate change now, we’re failing these kids. We’re failing our future.”

Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) Executive Kelly O’Shanassy joined the debate alongside hundreds of thousands of citizens, who took to social media to express their concern for the climate.

“There’s no doubt the Morrison government needs to deal with climate and energy – and they won’t be able to continue to put it in the too-hard basket,” O’Shanessy commented. She continued to say that climate change definitely was “a top issue in the election.”

Backtracking to the highly publicised Paris Climate Accord in 2015, an element of the multilateral agreements that took place required all member states to put forward their own ‘NDC’, or Nationally Determined Commitment to mitigating the anthropogenic effects of global warming.

One of the most popular courses of action was a mass commitment to electric vehicle production. France pledged to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, and Norway has plans to eradicate the sale of petrol cars by 2025, for example.

Global automakers have shifted their focus towards electric vehicles as well due to a growing demand.

BMW AG plans to launch 25 electrified models by 2025 and has set aside a 7 billion Euro budget for research into EV. Ford Motor, Daimler AG, General Motors and Toyota, amongst other car manufacturers, have made similar pledges.

Existing production lines as well as a wealth of natural resource reserves position Australia as a prime player in the global shift to electric vehicles. We could capitalise on this burgeoning industry, dually fostering our international standing in the processing through substantiating our commitment to global warming mitigation and reduction.

This provides a potentially irrefusable opportunity for Australia to get back on the map in the vehicle industry, following the respective shutdowns of large Holden and Toyota plants in 2017.

One company that has established a strong position to benefit from this move is Australian heavy rare earth (HRE) developers Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU). Their Browns Range operation on the border of WA and NT boasts the title of the largest dysprosium producer outside of China – a HRE integral to the production of EV batteries.

More information on Northern Minerals can be found at their Investor Centre.

*Reach Markets are paid a retainer to assist NTU with private investor management.