Carbon-capture’s $66bn boost as net-zero support surges

Madeleine King will launch a report revealing an east coast carbon capture storage network could add $66bn to the economy, as polling shows surging post-election support for net zero.

Resources Minister Madeleine King has been a long-time supporter of carbon, capture and storage technologies remaining in Australia’s arsenal to lower emissions and achieve net zero by 2050. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

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Resources Minister Madeleine King will launch a major industry report revealing an integrated east-coast carbon capture and storage network could add $66bn to the economy and support more than 15,000 new jobs, as new polling shows surging post-election support for climate change targets and renewables.

Amid a push for stronger government backing of CCS projects to help remove emissions from hard-to-abate industries including cement production, fertiliser manufacturing, mining and metal refining, federal Labor remains split over the merits of the low-emissions tech.

An EY report, commissioned by Low Emission Technology Australia, says there is a “distinct opportunity, now and over the next decade, to develop and deploy CCS to deliver cost effective industrial decarbonisation and support Australia’s transition to net-zero emissions by 2050”.

“However, the local industry currently lags leading countries like the US, UK and China, which are actively developing integrated CCS hubs as part of their broader industrial and climate action strategies,” the report says.

“A particular challenge for Australia is developing CCS on the east coast where progress has stalled but where much of the country’s industrial and manufacturing base is located.”

Global mining giant Glencore had its controversial CCS project in the Great Artesian Basin scuttled by the Queensland Labor government last year, prompting industry “death knell” concerns about the future of east coast CCS projects.

While some federal Labor MPs believe that “CCS perpetuates fossil fuels”, Ms King has fought to keep CCS in the government’s arsenal, despite opposition in the first-term Albanese government from some cabinet colleagues. Ms King, who will speak at the Parliament House report launch event on Wednesday night, this month declared that “we need to … use every tool we’ve got to try and decarbonise” – including CCS.

Australia’s three flagship CCS operations are: the Chevron-­operated Gorgon facility off Western Australia, the Santos-operated Moomba project in South Australia and the CO2CRC-operated Otway International Test Centre in Victoria.

Amid splits in the Coalition over whether to dump a commitment for net-zero emissions by 2050 and as the government finalises its new 2035 emissions-­reduction target, an SEC Newgate Mood of the Nation survey reveals support for the energy transition to renewables is growing, rising from 53 to 58 per cent since April.

The poll of 1855 Australians, conducted from July 8-16, found 64 per cent of voters (up from 56 per cent) backed the 2030 target to reduce carbon emissions by 43 per cent and 59 per cent (up from 53 per cent) endorsed the commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Support for rooftop solar has risen to 89 per cent, ahead of hydroelectric power (75 per cent), solar farms (74 per cent), onshore wind (63 per cent), offshore wind (60 per cent), gas-fired power (35 per cent), nuclear power (31 per cent) and coal-fired power (31 per cent).

The EY report said that under a high-growth scenario where the “right mix of regulatory, technology, and commercial settings were introduced”, CCS deployment along the east coast could rapidly accelerate to 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2050.

“A fully networked CCS industry along the east coast could increase economic activity by around $66bn and support an additional 15,250 jobs over the coming decades,” the report said.

“Such a scenario would require a significant but achievable scale-up in common-use infrastructure, reductions in upfront capital and ongoing costs, particularly for emerging technologies such as ­direct air capture, and effective co-ordination across government and industry.

“CCS deployment is integral in sustaining the growth and global competitiveness of Australia’s hard-to-abate sectors, while still ensuring industry alignment with national climate goals under the Safeguard Mechanism.”

LETA acting chief executive Damian Dwyer said the report echoed advice from the International Energy Agency, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Australia’s Climate Change Authority and CSIRO on the importance of CCS. He said LETA was urging the federal government to “take steps to address regulatory barriers for CCS.