Australian heavy industries including aluminium may slash 80% GHG emissions; attract multibillion-dollar investments in renewable energy

According to an industry report by the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI), supported by some of the largest companies in Australia, it has been revealed that the regional manufacturing organisations, who are the immensely contributing to the economy of the nation can create the possibility to axe down the greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80% and as a turnout, Australia will attract multibillion-dollar investments in renewable energy sources.

It is considered one of the most challenging aspects of Australia's endeavour to attain net-zero to cut emissions from the production of aluminium among other like iron, steel, chemicals and liquefied natural gas.

However, the report from the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI), a coalition between heavy industry and experts in decarbonisation, said “The transition is feasible using a range of existing technologies and would create thousands of jobs.”

The report suggests that, by introducing a range of technologies along the supply chain, several of them manifested and some of the commercially available, greenhouse gas emissions could be diminished by 69.5m tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year, which would account for around 14% of Australia's present total emissions.

Innes Willox, the CEO of the Australian Industry Group, an ETI partner, said “The steps industries needed to take to get to net-zero were increasingly clear. While their costs and difficulties should not be underestimated, the current energy affordability crisis highlights the unsustainable cost of the status quo.”

In order to decarbonise, a large portion of the effort would come from the creation of new renewable energy. The amount of renewable energy required would range between 68.3 and 125.9 terawatt-hours. As of 2021, Australia generated 265 TWh of electricity, of which a quarter was generated from renewable sources.

The report predicts that building renewable energy infrastructure, including energy storage facilities, and developing a green hydrogen industry for the regions would create 178,000 to 372,000 jobs, with investments between $50 billion and $100 billion.

ETI's 18 partners said, “The emission reductions in Pilbara, Hunter, Illawarra, and Gladstone will require a high level of collaboration and coordination.”