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https://theconversation.com/the-road-is-long-and-time-is-short-but-australias-pace-towards-net-zero-is-quickening-214570>
"The marks of industry have forever changed the Hunter Valley in New South
Wales, edged by the Blue Mountains to the south and ancient rainforests to the
north. Coal has been mined here for more than 200 years, providing generations
of people with good livelihoods and lives. But the end of coal in the Hunter
does not spell the end of communities. Quite the opposite.
The Hunter is developing a clean manufacturing precinct, and state and federal
governments are investing heavily in the effort. Projects to create hydrogen
and renewable energy to replace coal and gas are underway.
At Kooragang Island, just north of Newcastle, Orica and the Australian
government are working together to change what the exhaust stacks at three
nitric acid manufacturing plants put into the air. Nitrous oxide, a greenhouse
gas now released directly into the atmosphere, is being converted into nitrogen
and oxygen, and emissions at these plants are set to halve.
In the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone around Muswellbrook and
Newcastle, the Waratah Super Battery, likely to be the Southern Hemisphere’s
largest standby network battery, is among the renewable energy projects that
will replace the Eraring coal-fired power station when it closes in 2025. Even
in the Hunter, with its long fossil fuel history, change is in the air.
Pessimism abounds about the world’s capacity to solve climate change, but as
chief executive of Climateworks Centre, which works with governments,
companies, regulators and investors to create pathways to net zero emissions, I
see evidence every day of people doing hard practical work to bring their
organisations into line with our national and global climate goals.
The road is long and time is short, but our pace is quickening. The price of
renewables is falling, coal-fired power plants are sunsetting sooner, hydrogen
technology is progressing. And as industries and economies change, so too will
minds.
The ambition of climate action must continue to aim at a global temperature
increase of no more than 1.5°C because every tenth of a degree of warming
brings exponentially worse outcomes. Last week, the US Treasury advised that
financial institutions’ net zero plans should be in line with a 1.5°C pathway.
In 2020 when my organisation’s climate modelling with CSIRO showed the first
1.5°C-aligned path to net zero for Australia, the Paris Agreement, which
committed the world to strive for such a pathway, was five years old. The
progress in technology in that time demonstrated potential to bring emissions
to net zero over a decade faster than previously shown. Today, our modelling
consistently identifies a 1.5°C-aligned pathway. But implementation needs to
pick up speed."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
