Scott Morrison is hiding behind future technologies, when we should just deploy what already exists

At the United Nations weather summit in Glasgow final 7 days, additional than 40 nations around the world pledged to period out coal-fired electrical power. Some were being huge coal-working with countries such as Poland, Canada and Vietnam – having said that Australia was not amid them. Australia was likewise absent for a methane reduction pledge.

Attaining the Paris Arrangement — limiting international warming to very well down below 2℃ and if possible 1.5℃ — necessitates the immediate phase out of coal, oil and fossil fuel. Failure to do so will spell the end of the Great Barrier Reef and make a massive swathe of Australia nearly unlivable.

Nonetheless the Morrison government’s technology-pushed net-zero “plan” incorporates no concrete actions to finish this fossil gas addiction. It’s additional a placeholder than a approach, fulfilling the government’s need to have to have a doc to wave around. Meanwhile, the authorities seems intent on sitting down back again and letting the long run take place, rather than producing it.

I have put in 25 yrs working and investing in know-how commercialisation, focusing around the previous 15 yrs on cleanse technologies. I know Australia does not have to have to wait around for new technological innovation in advance of committing to and achieving deep emissions cuts. Most technologies we will need currently exist – they just require to be deployed, swiftly and at enormous scale. And that needs an genuine prepare.

We have the technologies

The Morrison government’s route to reach web-zero by 2050 depends mostly on technological know-how, but fails to even remotely define what that would necessarily mean in exercise.

A whole of 70{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} of the emissions cuts would purportedly be realized by know-how “investment”, “trends” and “breakthroughs”. But it’s not know-how for each se that lessens emissions, it’s deploying it.

The government skipped the option to demonstrate decarbonisation at its most basic: electrify anything we can, and electricity it with renewables.

Some 84{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} of Australia’s emissions arrive from activities related to the vitality sector. Recent abroad examination shows electrification could swap 78{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} of energy emissions utilizing established systems. Incorporate systems getting developed, and the figure rises to 99{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add}.

Hydrogen, a person of the government’s technologies du jour, is very likely to perform a modest but crucial function in domestic decarbonisation. And if we really do not get remaining at the rear of, it could grow to be a sizeable export earner.

But what is needed in the in the vicinity of phrase is a great deal far more tedious: make heaps of wind, photo voltaic and storage, retire coal and fuel as quickly as probable, and electrify transport and heating.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS), a favourite of Australian governments for a long time, continues to be a distraction. Very first, since CCS adds important price tag but no gain to a process, it will normally have to have either a carbon selling price or regulations to be feasible. 2nd, when CCS may enjoy a job at the margins in places where emissions are tricky to abate, this kind of as cement creation, its only substantial position for coal and gas is as a fig leaf for inaction.

Green steel could be a considerable prospect for Australia, presented our abundance of iron ore and obtain to very low-value thoroughly clean electrical power. But while Australia dips a toe in the drinking water, abroad organizations like SSAB and Volvo are demonstrating that the times of metalurgical coal — 1 of Australia’s largest exports — are numbered.

Obviously, the systems are listed here. What we require is deployment.

Understand from Henry Ford

A 10 years back, electrical power from wind and photo voltaic was drastically far more costly than from coal and fuel. But renewables are now the cheapest sort of new strength, even such as additional prices such as electrical power storage and transmission.

Renewable energy’s quick tumble in rate was thanks to a combine of perfectly-intended governing administration insurance policies and enormous non-public expense, each right here and all over the environment.

The Commonwealth’s Renewable Vitality Target, for case in point, demanded electric power suppliers to obtain a smaller but raising sum of renewable power just about every 12 months, in a way that did not appreciably affect electrical power affordability. With renewables now at a lessen price tag than new coal and gas, that early investment decision is spending dividends.

The expertise showed we don’t have to wait around right up until technology is cheap and fantastic prior to deploying it. In truth, the only way to make it low-cost and perfect is to deploy it, again and once more.

When Henry Ford unveiled the Design T in 1908 his horseless carriage was imperfect and highly-priced. Yet it kicked off a approach of technological enhancement in which each and every successive generation of autos has learnt lessons from those people which came in advance of.

If federal Vitality Minister Angus Taylor time-travelled again to 1908, would he suggest Ford not to release the Model T right until it resembled the Tesla Model S?

Seizing possibilities

Most economists concur the most efficient way to reduce emissions is to set a selling price on carbon and permit the market respond. Far more than a decade of harmful Australian politics has poisoned that very well. It leaves policymakers with several instruments, and politicians with even less concepts.

In the absence of an specific carbon pricing scheme, the federal federal government should set obvious emissions reduction targets in each sector of the financial state.

Monash University’s ClimateWorks has produced a prepare for performing so. These a approach, with an included mixture of coverage “carrots” (subsidies or incentives) and “sticks” (laws or taxes) would ensure emissions reduction targets are met.

Our least expensive hanging fruit would include a cautiously managed coal phase-out and policies to speedily electrify transport and heating, making use of present systems. This would support us hit meaningful 2030 emissions reduction targets consistent with the Paris Settlement.

Meanwhile, we sit on the cusp of what is practically undoubtedly Australia’s biggest ever expenditure option. Our huge brown land is chock total of the significant minerals needed in a decarbonising entire world — lithium, nickel, cobalt, scarce earth metals and silicon. Moreover, our windswept and solar-drenched plains are completely ready to make the small-cost electricity needed to domestically transform these raw minerals into precious refined materials.

Our state governments, some obtaining committed to web-zero five a long time back, are generating development – especially in electrical power. But complementary and coordinated guidelines at the federal stage would almost surely make development quicker — and more cost-effective.

The coal and methane pledges at COP26 demonstrates numerous of the world’s most emissions-intense economies are prepared to make the changeover. Meanwhile, the federal government’s so-termed “plan” prevents Australia from saying our area in the sunshine, and wind.

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