Australia to have leading role in carbon mitigation

Friday, 30 November 2007

Australia to have leading role in carbon mitigation

Ross Garnaut

What should Australia aim for as the world discusses a global emissions target?

Australia is likely to be damaged more than any other developed country by climate change. Our environment is dry and highly variable already, and this will be exacerbated with climate change, with the effect on agriculture and water supplies being particularly pronounced.

Australia is well placed to be part of an effective global mitigation effort. We have exceptionally rich resources for solar, geothermal and wind energy.

Our large livestock industries are less emissions-intensive than our competitors in Europe, north-east Asia and North America. We have large resources of high quality (that is, low emissions per unit of energy) coal, which means our share of the global coal supply would rise under an effective global mitigation regime.

We have large deposits of natural gas and uranium, the exports of which would increase in a world of major and effective mitigation. We have an exceptional endowment of favourable sites for carbon capture and storage, most being favourably located in relation to the coal-using industrial centres of the south-east.

And we have an exceptional human resource base in engineering, management and finance related to the resources sector, which places us well for competitive participation in innovation in the emerging low-emission energy industries.

All of these Australian strengths facilitate, and render less costly, domestic mitigation.

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