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attractive. The Low Carbon Growth Plan highlights the relative
merit of categories of opportunities that are typically available
across a sub-sector regardless of differences in plant or kit, such
as motor system upgrades, process improvements or installation
of cogeneration technologies.
The Plan also demonstrates that businesses in the agriculture sector
can cut emissions principally through changes to land management
practices to align with current best practice approaches. This includes
increasing carbon sequestered in soils through improved cropland,
pastureland and grassland management, and reducing emissions from
livestock through improved feed quality. Land owners also control
significant potential to reduce emissions through forestry activi-
ties – in particular through reforestation, reduced deforestation and
improving forest management practices to increase woody growth.
Some land based opportunities offer land owners the potential to
generate additional revenue via offset schemes (such as the Carbon
Farming Initiative).
In a country such as Australia where electricity is typically
generated from coal, substantial potential to reduce emissions also
comes from solutions for less-emissions intensive power genera-
tion. By comparing the abatement potential and relative cost that
a range of different power generation technologies offer, the Low
Carbon Growth Plan can provide an input to decision making
for investors in the power generation sector. Further the Plan
compares the total electricity production mix under a business-as-
usual scenario for Australia in 2020 against a low carbon scenario
to illustrate the changes that will need to happen on a low carbon
transition pathway.
Image: ClimateWorks
Cogeneration, also called combined heat and power or CHP, is a technological
opportunity which provides energy savings by creating heat and electricity from
the same fuel source
Energy
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How is the Plan being applied?
Experience shows that the Plan is not only limited to
a decision making framework to prioritise abatement
opportunities, but is also being adopted and modified
for other purposes. For instance, one of Australia’s
leading banks, the National Australia Bank, has recently
used the Low Carbon Growth Plan to develop a targeted
information package for their retail customers on how
they can reduce risks from rising energy costs through
energy efficiency.
Similarly, the Plan has been used by the education
sector as a means of understanding future market needs
for ‘green’ or ‘low carbon’ skills. By mapping key roles
and skillsets against each of the opportunities identi-
fied in the Plan, universities have been able to profile
areas of emerging skill needs and develop appropriate
response strategies (for instance, new educational prod-
ucts and courses).
ClimateWorks is also working with regions across
Australia to develop their own Low Carbon Growth
Plans. These regional plans can shine a spotlight on
opportunities that can help to mitigate the economic
impacts that a transition to a low carbon future may
have on regional communities, helping to build
community resilience. It achieves this by showing
where businesses can reduce costs, thereby increas-
ing business productivity and resilience, where
landowners can improve land management practices
to either improve agricultural productivity or earn
carbon farming revenue, and where business growth
and employment opportunities may exist across a
regional economy, such as through the provision of
energy services.
Regional Low Carbon Growth Plans empower
regional communities to self-manage their emission
reduction activities. To date, three regional plans
have been developed in Gippsland, Geelong and
Macquarie Park.
The Low Carbon Growth Plan for Australia therefore
provides a range of climate services to businesses. It
prioritises the lowest cost emissions reduction activi-
ties available across all sectors of the economy, focusing
on solutions that businesses can implement today. It
articulates the barriers those opportunities face, and
outlines approaches to address those barriers. It allows
‘value-adding’ to services provided by other businesses
such as financial institutions and education providers.
And the methodology itself is adaptable to regions and
cities, where it can highlight a clear transition pathway
that not only reduces a community’s emissions, but
can help to build business and community resilience
in a changing climate.
The Low Carbon Growth Plan for Australia was developed
by ClimateWorks Australia – a non-profit organisation
created in 2009, through a partnership between the Myer
Foundation and Monash University. Read the Low Carbon
Growth Plan and ClimateWorks’ other reports here: