Zero-emissions everything

Saul Griffith’s The Wires That Bind is a timely sketch of Australia’s path to decarbonisation, modernisation and economic prosperity. Saul’s solution is compelling and tangible: within the next 20 years, we must electrify everything. Electrify and build 101 million machines to have a modern, zero-emissions “protopia”.

It’s no small task. Australia’s national electricity grid is the largest machine in the world. Millions of appliances and millions of vehicles will need to be upgraded to electric, and supporting infrastructure such as a national network of vehicle charging stations needs to be designed and built. All this on top of the massive build out of solar, wind and energy storage to power our clean economy.

Our research shows that this deployment could lead to an 81% emissions reduction by 2030. I agree with Saul that this is a “nation-building opportunity to define twenty-first century Australia”, with households playing a critical role in creating millions of jobs while decarbonising Australia.

In fact, the role of households in the energy transition is unique. This is the setting where we all personally encounter the challenges and the miracles of energy technology: from teachers, to tradies, to posties and politicians – we flick a switch to turn on the lights, we jump in the car to see friends and family and we turn taps for hot showers. Technology is a source of convenience and comfort for millions of Australians.?

Homes are where we can feel the immense benefits of the energy transition, and it’s this shared experience that provides an opportunity to empower national leaders to make the right decisions in boardrooms, party rooms and houses of parliament. But individual and small community electrification alone does not modernise the ‘largest machine in the world’.

Since 2010, Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE), has supported hundreds of energy and industry experts to crowd-source solutions that decarbonise all sectors of Australia’s economy. Ten years ago, BZE researchers published the first comprehensive 10-year plan to decarbonise every existing and new building in Australia and it’s great to have Saul’s colourful voice now adding to this cause.

Our researchers have also tackled the “hard to abate” sectors in our economy, including heavy industry, showing how we can decarbonise Australia’s factories and infrastructure through zero-emissions cement, steel and more. With zero-emissions manufacturing, Australia can capture much more of the value from the energy transition onshore.?

This climate solution, to repower our industries with renewable energy, complements the opportunity identified by Saul to achieve domestic cost savings through household electrification. Our work at BZE has identified an enormous national opportunity to electrify our industrial heartlands, reduce energy bills for households and businesses and build stronger, fairer and more resilient regional economies.

In particular, establishing a national network of Renewable Energy Industrial Precincts (REIPs) in our industrial heartlands is an opportunity for Australia to keep pace with our trading partners, who are moving rapidly towards establishing a global green economy.??

REIPs cluster manufacturers into precincts, with shared infrastructure enabling all participating businesses to be powered by 100% renewable energy. Our research indicates this ecosystem-level approach is the most efficient way to decarbonise our industries (which contribute almost half of Australia’s domestic emissions), diversify our exports, create good, long-term jobs and unlock new economic opportunities for regional communities such as Gladstone in Queensland and the Hunter in New South Wales.??

REIPs are how Australia delivers both zero-emissions households and zero-emissions jobs, as well as the solution to replacing fossil fuel exports with zero-emissions alternatives. As Saul writes, "Clean electric industry needs to make clean electric things for us to incorporate into our clean electric households". The race to decarbonise the global economy has already begun, and Australia remains well positioned to capitalise. But here’s the catch: we have to move quickly, and we have to play to our strengths.?

Of our many advantages, including critical minerals mining and renewable energy generation, perhaps the most striking is that we have recent experience in building global export industries from scratch. As recently as 2000, iron ore exports constituted only 9% ($5 billion) of Australian exports. Fast-forward to 2019 and iron ore made up more than 35% of total exports, with value growing 20-fold to $100 billion.

As BZE’s research shows, if we get this right, the value of Australia’s green export revenue can increase to $333 billion per year, we will have developed the capability to produce the millions of machines our households and businesses need to decarbonise, our regions will thrive and we will have made the shift from significant contributor to climate change to global leader in decarbonisation without reducing our enviable living standards. That is the opportunity before us.

So, to the $333 billion question: How do we realise this once-in-a-century opportunity? We have identified how to rapidly build a National Supergrid that can electrify our households and our industries. We need commitment by the federal government to develop a network of REIP locations to retain and attract large industrial players and ensure our regional communities prosper. And we will need well-funded training and skills programs to retool our workforce so it is fit-for-purpose in the twenty-first century.?

Most importantly, we need radical collaboration. To “electrify everything”, we will need leadership on all fronts: between households, communities, industry and governments. Local, national and international. Radical collaboration is where entire regions work together to decarbonise. With everyone coming together, Australia can become a protopia for global decarbonisation.

My thanks to Kelvin Wicks for working with me to capture these thoughts, and to the hundreds of experts at Beyond Zero Emissions and throughout the building industry that have shaped my understanding of the opportunities of a zero-emissions Australia.