Post: Australia’s heavy industries could cut 90% of CO2 by 2050

Australia’s heavy industries could cut 90% of CO2 by 2050

Some of Australia’s largest heavy industrial companies have backed a report that says they could cut direct greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains by more than 90% by 2050, and not have to rely heavily on carbon offsets.

The report, published on 20 February by the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI) looked at five major supply chains for industries – including iron, steel, aluminium, chemicals and liquified natural gas (LNG). It found they could cut annual CO2 from 221M tonnes in 2020 to 17M tonnes by mid-century while steel and iron production rose by nearly 20% and aluminium production by more than 30%.

Done in collaboration with companies representing around a fifth of Australia’s industrial emissions and a third of the ASX100 market value, the report finds strong, effective and coordinated action from government, industry and finance is crucial for the net zero transition.

It identifies five objectives to enable heavy industry to transition to net zero emissions consistent with global efforts to limit warming to 1.5ºC. They are for Australia to:

• Set a strong, clear, enduring framework with a net zero emissions goal to align industry, finance and government
• Transition to the large-scale, cost-competitive, renewable energy system of the future
• Accelerate development and demonstration of the emerging technologies needed
• Drive deployment of low-carbon solutions, reduce barriers and support investment towards the transition
• Develop integrated net zero emissions industrial regions, supply chains and energy network solutions.

To enable the transition, the report noted that $440B of energy system investment is required by 2050. 600TWh/y of electricity is needed by 2050, requiring a 2-fold increase in Australia’s total current electricity generation. Around 1450TWh/y by 2050 needed to establish new green iron and hydrogen export markets. 260GW renewable capacity by 2050 including: 80GW of wind, 90GW of large-scale solar PV, 80GW of rooftop solar and 70GW of storage capacity.