To download the full Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan click here (8.4MB).
For the Synopsis of the plan click here (2.2MB)
“With our natural advantage Australia can and should be positioning itself as a global renewable super power for future prosperity. This report will help shift the climate debate to focus on energy; security; affordability; export and of course opportunity. Beyond Zero Emissions offers a new and invigorating message that is much needed” Professor Robin Batterham, President, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, formerly Chief Scientist of Australia
“For decades, those opposing the transition to clean energy have claimed that it is not technically feasible. This report puts that argument convincingly to bed. There is no longer an excuse for inaction. Starting the transition now is our responsibility to future generations.”Professor Ian Lowe,President of the Australian Conservation Foundation,Emeritus Professor Griffith University
“The Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan is a provocative and timely contribution to the climate change debate, and it deserves attention both here and abroad. The Plan demolishes a pile of conventional wisdom that Australian policymakers still seem unable to get past. The sorry history of Australian climate policy procrastination is littered with polluter-friendly analyses conducted by economic hired guns. Their work has been used to argue against action, or for illusory schemes that price carbon without reducing the greenhouse pollution billowing from Australian smokestacks and tailpipes. The effect has been to constrain debate and obscure from our view a very different vision—a rapid switch from fossil to renewable energy that makes economic and environmental sense. By highlighting one of many pathways to achieving that vision, the ZCA report sheds light where it is desperately needed.” Dr Guy Pearse, Research Fellow, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland Author of High & Dry and Quarry Visio
“No doubt improved technologies for tapping usable energy from the sun, the winds, the tides, and the hot core of our planet will emerge as time goes by. But this report shows clearly that the solutions available now are, with our small population and enormous landmass, sufficient for Australia to move forward very quickly to tap renewable energy sources and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. We have the resources. We need the will. Dr. Peter Doherty, Nobel Laureate, School of Medicine, University of Melbourne
“100 % renewable energy with zero emissions is achievable in Australia in about a decade if politics takes concerted actions…Moreover, Australia can become the initiator for a serious attempt to shift the world to a solar economy. This is the only promising strategy for climate protection and would provide societies around the world with solutions for climate protection, economic development, poverty reduction and conflict resolution. We need action now!” Hans-Josef Fell, Member of the German Parliament Alliance 90/The Greens Spokesman for Energy
“The Zero Carbon Australia 2020 plan shows that it is technically feasible and affordable to replace all fossil fuel electricity with 100% renewable energy given the willpower and commitment to do so. This is a cutting-edge science-based plan that should be read by every energy decision maker and politician in Australia.” Mark Z. Jacobson, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor by Courtesy of Energy Resources Engineering, Director, Atmosphere/Energy Program Stanford University, USA
“It’s not the five per cent cut project or the 20 per cent cut project with a bunch of unachievable caveats. It’s a zero carbon project and I think people actually want to be told a narrative, a story which is ambitious, which is aspirational, but also practical and I think that is what this project is about.” Federal Independent Senator Nick Xenophon
“This is a bold and ground-breaking piece of work which should be a wake-up call to all those in government and industry who refuse to see beyond coal…..This is a very exciting report. It has academic rigour, it has also the hope of a generation and it has thousands of jobs waiting to happen….We can and must aim to power Australia with 100% renewable energy as soon as possible if we are to truly tackle the climate crisis - and the great news is, that will bring huge benefits to us all, cleaning the air and creating jobs and investment from the suburbs to the farmlands…….This Zero Carbon Australia plan is an extremely valuable contribution which all in the parliament should be looking at very seriously” Federal Greens Senator Christine Milne
“Every nation in the world should make a plan like this. If one can get a 100% renewable, zero carbon electricity system by investing 3% of GDP (and 10% of gross investment) for ten years, there is no good reason not to do it. Except, maybe, the straitjacket of old ways of thinking and doing. This plan lays out a high solar-wind renewable future and then does more. It looks carefully at the materials requirements of such a future, an aspect of the matter too often left unaddressed.Australia could be the first large economy to show the way.” John O. Blackburn Professor Emeritus of Economics Duke University, USA
“Australians are capable of rapid change when the historical circumstances call for it. Indeed, we pride ourselves on being a resourceful people. TheBeyond Zero Emissions team show how inventive and resourceful we can be. Their plan for a transition to 100% renewables is a powerful and cogent response to those who claim it can’t be done. The reception this report receives will be a sign of how much Australians believe in their future and how much they take refuge in the thinking of the past.” Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics and author of Requiem for a Species
”The ZCA report analyses one particular scenario of renewable energy technology choice based on available solutions, in considerable depth. It successfully shows in detail that 100% renewable energy is both technically possible and economically affordable. Clearly other renewable energy technology scenarios are also possible, that only serves to strengthen the overall conclusion about viability. The group is to be congratulated for their efforts.” Associate Professor Keith Lovegrove Leader High Temperature Solar Thermal Group
Australian National University
“The chips are down - there is no longer any doubt about our need to rapidly transition to a zero emission economy. The fate of Australia and the world depend on it. The Zero Carbon Australia strategy being launched by Beyond Zero Emissions provides the roadmap to the solutions. Let’s hope it is adopted by responsible governments everywhere.” Professor Ove Hoegh-Goldberg, Director, Global Change Institute, The University of Queensland
“I get to work with people all over the world in the fight against global warming, a fight growing increasingly desperate as temperatures climb and rainfall patterns shift. Since Australia leads the world in per capita emissions, it makes sense that its transition planners would be thinking big. This transition obviously won’t be easy or simple or cost-free, but given the alternatives it’s very nice to know it’s technically feasible!” Bill McKibben Scholar in residence at Middlebury College, Author and Founder 350.org
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August 18th, 2010 at 12:24 am
This is a magnificent plan which puts both major parties climate INaction policies to the sword!!