A coal-powered thermal power station is pictured near Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley, Australia on Nov 2, 2021. (PHOTO / AP)
CANBERRA – Australia's top advisory body on climate policy has urged the federal government to step up its commitments.
In a new report published on Monday, the Climate Change Authority (CCA) said Australia must embrace carbon sequestration technologies at a far greater scale or face failing to achieve its emissions reduction targets.
The federal government has committed to reducing emissions by 43 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
In order to reach those targets, the CCA said that ambitious emissions reductions must be combined with sequestration – the capture and storage of carbon at the point of emission and from the atmosphere.
In a separate report released on Monday, the Clean Energy Investor Group calculated that 421 billion Australian dollars ($282 billion) of investment was needed for Australia to align with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius
"While reducing emissions at source is critical, the extent of the climate challenge means there must be effort directed to sequestration," Brad Archer, chief executive of the CCA, said in a media release.
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"We need to use all the tools in the toolkit. That includes developing a carefully designed portfolio of approaches, as no single technology can achieve the levels of sequestration likely to be needed."
The report recommended that the government set separate targets for emissions reduction and sequestration and for the forthcoming net zero plan to identify how carbon removal will be used over time.
Archer said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and International Energy Agency indicate the only technically feasible, cost-effective and socially acceptable pathways to net zero by 2050 "combine ambitious emissions reductions with carbon dioxide removals at far greater scale than at present."
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In a separate report released on Monday, the Clean Energy Investor Group calculated that 421 billion Australian dollars ($282 billion) of investment was needed for Australia to align with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.