Zero emissions power but not at expense of coalminers: report

This comes at the same time as the Carbon Count 2009 report, shows that companies listed on the ASX200 emitted 268.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gas in the 2007-08 financial year - 25.3 million tonnes higher than in the previous year.
Six companies accounted for almost 65 per cent of direct emissions over the period. Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, BlueScope Steel, Qantas, AGL and Wesfarmers directly emitted more than 97.5 million tonnes of carbon equivalent.
Rio's emissions doubled year-on-year, hitting 30.3 million tonnes for the 2007-08 financial year, making it the single largest emitter of greenhouse gas. The increase was largely due to its acquisition of the Canadian aluminium producer Alcan.
BHP's emissions rose 15 per cent due to a sixfold increase in reported methane emissions.
The metals and mining sector contributed the biggest rise in direct gas emissions - up 28 per cent.
Matthew Wright, Beyond Zero Emissions executive director said, “we have concluded that there are no technological impediments to transforming Australia’s stationary energy sector to zero emissions over the next ten years. The costs of transformation are adequately offset by savings made from shifting away from the business as usual scenario.
“No resource constraints were identified. With adequate societal and political commitment and regulatory support, the goal of an efficient and competitive zero-emissions stationary energy sector is well within Australia’s reach.” According to the report, the investment required for ZCA2020 implementation over the ten years is around 3-3.5 per cent of GDP. However, this is offset by avoiding the costs of a future carbon price and escalating oil, coal and water prices. Given what the report author’s see as the necessity of transitioning to a 100 per cent renewable economy within a decade, it says this is “sensible” expenditure.
The ZCA2020 Stationary Energy Plan is a design for electrical infrastructure that delivers the same end-service as we get today, but exclusively supplied from renewable sources.
The plan includes projections for energy use in transportation, buildings and industry which will be further developed in future work by Beyond Zero Emissions. The most obvious energy efficiency savings have been identified and incorporated into the plan. The result is net delivered energy in Australia reduced by half, while all the electrical services we use today (heaters, computers, lights, aluminium smelters etc) continue to operate.
Under the plan, coal mining communities in the Hunter, Bowen and Latrobe Valleys would receive the billions of dollars that were earmarked for theoretical clean coal to build factories that will create the components for the new infrastructure. Many more green jobs will be created than lost in these communities with high levels of fossil fuel employment.
Leading companies such as Solar Reserve, Suzlon, Sener, Vestas, Enercon, Siemens and GE will be provided with the incentives to setup their component manufacturing in Australian coal communities as they are transitioned from their dependency on coal. Japan, the major importer of Australian coal, announced a 25 per cent emissions reduction by 2020. They are unlikely to sustain their demand for Australian coal. A plan is required for these communities now, said the report.
The full report will be available for distribution and download by mid year.

For more information contact tel: 0421 616 733 or visit: http://media.beyondzeroemissions.org/preview-exec-sum14.pdf