Seminar - A 2050 emissions strategy for Australia: What’s the rest of the world got to do with it?

Countries' Paris Agreement pledges are mostly framed in terms of emissions reductions to 2030. This date however, is an intermediate step in global action on climate change: the agreement invites participating parties to submit mid-century emissions strategies before the UN COP climate conference in late 2020, and Australia will be expected to prepare such a strategy alongside other countries.

In this seminar we will discuss the international context for long-term emissions strategies and consider issues that inform a strategy for Australia. This includes a survey of emissions projections, federal/state policy processes, and a stocktake of possible direct economic benefits of decarbonising various aspects of Australia’s energy, industry, and transport activities.

Modelling of future emissions trajectories should move beyond the prevailing tendency to use overly pessimistic assumptions for future technology costs. Our discussion of the short- to medium-term outlook for Australian climate policy is framed by an overview of 2050 strategies presented by other countries at the UN Climate summit in New York on September 23.

 

About the speakers

Frank Jotzo is a Professor at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, where he directs the Centre for Climate and Energy Policy. Frank is a co-director of the Energy Transition Hub, joint editor-in-chief of the journal Climate Policy and a Lead Author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th and 6th Assessment Reports. He has been involved in many policy research and advisory exercises.

Paul Wyrwoll is an environmental and resources economist at the Crawford School of Public Policy. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Climate and Energy Policy working on Australia's 2050 emissions strategy and the role of energy storage in decarbonising electricity networks.