The MERNAP identifies approaches to decarbonising Australia’s domestic maritime sector, contributing to the decarbonisation of international shipping and supporting the growth of Australia’s low and zero carbon energy exports. The MERNAP is intended to support competitiveness, prosperity and equitability in Australia’s maritime and energy sectors as the global maritime sector transitions to a decarbonised future.
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East Coast Australian energy dynamics from the report indicate that operational demand remained steady, with distributed PV growth offsetting underlying demand growth. Renewables supplied a higher share of NEM generation, reaching new Q1 highs. Expanded battery capacity reshaped supply patterns across the day. WEM supply mix shifted further towards renewables, while battery storage reshaped intraday supply patterns while average WEM energy prices remained consistent year-on-year, with lower volatility, and essential system services costs declined for the west coast energy market.
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The report details demand-side options open to households, businesses and governments to shelter themselves from today’s oil shock and relieve the strains on affordability, based on the agency’s energy security expertise as well on specific country examples. Governments can take the lead, both by setting an example and by facilitating these actions, but many can be adopted by individuals and businesses directly. Most of these options relate to consumption of road transport fuels, but they also cover fuel use for air transport, cooking and industry.
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The report “Our Renewable Future: A Plan For People And Nature” by WWF summarises that Australia needs a renewable energy transition that benefits people, climate and nature. To power our energy needs with renewables it’s estimated we would only require 1,200km2 – 2,000km2 or 0.0002% of Australia’s bountiful landmass (Blakers 2023). Already, renewables account for 40 per cent of the main power supply. Right now, there are legitimate concerns surrounding individual renewables projects, some of which have led to habitat destruction and impacts on threatened wildlife.
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This plan shows that New Zealand is on track to meet our net zero 2050 target, with emissions meeting net zero as early as 2044. This final plan includes changes based on feedback received during the consultation. It now reflects government policies, such as changes to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme auction settings and private sector actions, like the transition of Huntly Power Station from coal to biomass. New Zealand stands at a critical point in preparing for a net zero future. Achieving goals will require collaboration across all groups to reduce emissions, unlock renewable energy, foster innovation, and leverage nature-based solutions.
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The objective of the National Renewable Energy Supply Chain Action Plan (NRESCAP or Action Plan) is to reduce supply chain risks and address vulnerabilities for priority technologies (onshore wind, solar photovoltaics, and batteries) to ensure delivery of the critical infrastructure needed to achieve the renewable energy target of 82 percent by 2030. Across governments, both medium and long-term government initiatives have been announced.
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Australia’s transition to a net zero economy is necessary, inevitable and urgent. Among developed countries, Australia is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The impacts of nearly 1.5 degrees of warming can already be seen in trends of declining rainfall in the south-east and south-west, an increase in extreme fire weather and longer fire seasons, higher sea surface temperatures, rising sea levels and increasing ocean acidification.
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The Pilbara region in Western Australia underpins Australia’s economic strength. It is the powerhouse of Australia’s resources export industry, the global leader in the production and export of iron ore – Australia’s #1 export commodity – and has worldscale reserves of critical minerals including lithium, strategic metals and energy transition materials. Currently, to power their mobile equipment operations in the Pilbara, the mining majors burn a massive 2.4bn litres pa of heavily subsidised, imported diesel – a high emissions fossil fuel – and rely on fossil gas for stationary energy.
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This “Clean Energy Equipment, Technology and Services Capability Directory” by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission offers an overview of Australian innovation, products, and services across solar, wind, wave, energy storage, grids and behind the metre, carbon capture, utilisation and storage as well as bioenergy and waste from energy sectors. It showcases Australia’s capabilities for progressing the global energy transformation, including in renewable energy and other clean energy solutions.
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Tasmania could significantly reduce its energy costs by optimising its energy assets: importing more cheap electricity, exporting more high-priced electricity, and slashing electricity costs of residential and commercial buildings. Batteries could help Tasmania cost-effectively increase both imports and exports of energy, while a broader review of market incentives and rules may be required to optimise the opportunity represented by water hoarding.
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Shifting from private passenger vehicle use to zero emissions public transport will help curb Australia’s rising transport emissions. When considering other factors, such as population growth – particularly in urban areas – and the significant non-CO2 pollutant emissions associated with traditional diesel buses, it is clear that electrification of buses should be a central pillar of any transport decarbonisation strategy.
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The Australian renewable energy industry accounted for 32.5 per cent of Australia’s total electricity generation in 2021, which represented an increase of almost 5 percentage points compared to 2020. This growth was again led by small-scale solar, which added 3.3 GW of new capacity during the year to record its fifth-straight record-breaking year.
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