SMM: Australia plans to invest A $18 billion (US $13 billion) in energy technology over the next decade to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change, Australia's energy minister said on Monday.
The technology investment plan is the latest attempt by Australia, the world's largest exporter of coal and natural gas, to propose climate and energy policies after 13 years of debate over carbon prices and emissions targets.
However, Australia has not yet proposed a plan to achieve net zero emissions targets or carbon prices by 2050. Angus Taylor, Australia's energy minister, said the government would focus on investing in hydrogen, energy storage, low-carbon steel and aluminum, carbon capture and storage and carbon sequestration in the soil, and set cost targets for these technologies.
By the end of 2019, the country was less than half of what the Paris climate agreement had promised, and Australia had pledged to reduce its emissions by 26-28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
"Australia cannot and should not harm its economy to reduce emissions," Taylor said in a speech in Canberra on Monday. In terms of emission reduction, the competition for cost-effective low-emission and negative-emission technologies will strengthen our economy rather than weaken it. "
The plan aims to reduce the cost of battery storage to less than A $100 per megawatt hour, to reduce the cost of carbon capture and storage to less than A $20 per tonne, and to reduce the cost of measuring carbon in soil to less than A $3 per tonne per year. To encourage farmers to change the way they manage their land.
For low-emission steel production, the goal is to cut costs to less than A $900a tonne and green aluminium to less than A $2700 a tonne.
