Robert Purves

Robert Purves is the President of WWF Australia, a position he has held since 1999. He became of director of WWF Australia in 1993. “WWF suits my philosophy. There are two positions on the environment. There’s the in-your-face activism – that’s Greenpeace; and the other is the science-driven, solutions-based approach, and WWF globally fits into that position. I’ve spent probably the last 10 years building WWF up into that position and it’s become very influential as a result,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Rob is also a councilor of the Copenhagen Climate Council which made his presence at Powershift 09 that much more important. He joined our panelists Tim Flannery, Senator Nick Xenophon, Amanda McKenzie, & Senator Christine Milne at UWS for a conversational Q&A.

Powershift Panel

An article written by The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Rob saying, “There is no bigger threat to our civilisation than climate,” he insists. “This is not about planting a few more hundred trees. This is about how do we rapidly adapt to a low-carbon future and how does business position itself to be the beneficiary of it rather than [be] destroyed by it. This is such an overarching, horrendous issue, business doesn’t have the choice of just melting into the background.”