A Victorian company called Beyond Zero Emissions has come up with a whitepaper called Zero Carbon Australia 2020 (ZCA2020) Stationary Energy Plan, which is a detailed report about how Australia can reduce its emissions to zero by 2020.
The costed blueprint demonstrates how Australia can reach zero emissions electricity by 2020 using proven, existing, commercialised technology, the report authors claim.
According to Beyond Zero Emissions executive director, Matthew Wright, “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,” he said.
“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.
“The investment required for ZCA2020 implementation over the ten years is only 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 the urgent necessity of transitioning to a 100 per cent renewable economy within a decade, this is a sensible expenditure.”
The full report will be available for download by mid-2010.