New website explores pathways to a low carbon future for Australia
A website just launched by ClimateWorks Australia, Pathways to a Low Carbon Future, provides an interactive guide to the ground-breaking work done by ClimateWorks and the Australian National University as part of SDSN’s Deep Decarbonisation Pathways Project.
This work, based on comprehensive modelling, has shown that it is possible for Australia to fully achieve zero net emissions by 2050 while maintaining economic growth through a pathway of:
- Ambitious energy efficiency in industry, buildings and transport
- Switch to 100% renewable electricity
- Electrification of every energy-using activity that can be feasibly electrified (e.g. gas heating to electric heating), and switch of all other activities to low emissions alternatives (e.g. coal and oil to biofuels)
- Reduction in non-energy emissions (e.g. emissions from cement production), and offsetting the remainder through carbon forestry
The website provides a fun, accessible and interactive introduction to this work and allows users to explore the evidence behind it. Users can also try out their own pathways to decarbonising the Australian economy using the site’s 2050 Pathways Calculator. The calculator, which lets users test the effects of different emissions reduction activities, can help inform analysis of Australia’s post-2020 emissions targets in the lead-up to this year’s international climate change negotiations in Paris and beyond.
The website and calculator build on the ClimateWorks Australia and Australian National University report Pathways to Deep Decarbonisation in 2050: How Australia can prosper in a low carbon world.
In the media: The Age, The Conversation and the Fifth Estate.
