FUTURE OF MINING EMISSIONS
POWERING TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE TRADITIONALLY ONE OF THE LARGEST PRODUCERS OF GREENHOUSE GASES, THE AUSTRALIAN MINING SECTOR IS NOW LEADING THE CHARGE TO KEEP THE NATION ON TARGET FOR NET ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2050.
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ast year, the Australian Government pledged to act in a practical, responsible way to deliver net zero emissions by 2050, while preserving Australian jobs and generating new opportunities for industries. A large part of this saw Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reductions Angus Taylor release Australia’s Long Term Emissions Reduction Plan. The technology-driven plan sets out a credible pathway to net zero by 2050, establishing Australia as a leader in low emissions technologies. In his address to the COP26 Glasgow Climate Summit in Scotland, Taylor outlines the ways in which Australia would reduce its emissions, using a range of new and future technologies which will advance through continued development in these sectors. “We estimate the six priority
areas for investment in the Roadmap – clean hydrogen, energy storage, low carbon materials including green steel and aluminium, carbon capture technology, soil carbon measurement, and now ultra-low cost solar – will deliver around half of the reductions we still need to realise to achieve net zero by 2050,” Taylor says. John Curtin Distinguished Professor Peter Newman from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute says the whole private sector is now moving quickly towards net zero emissions. “That means by 2030 the private sector will have to have made a very substantial move which means they have to start now,” he tells Australian Mining. “I did the Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy working in (former WA Premier) Geoff Gallop’s office for three years from 2001 to 2003 and the leading companies at that stage were the mining companies. AUSTRALIANMINING
“At that time, Rio Tinto was the leader and they helped me produce a set of case studies on what we called ‘sustainability hope’ and they helped to make that available to the public.” Newman says the destruction of Juukan Gorge in Western Australia’s Pilbara region has proven a catalyst for an increased focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) from mining companies around Australia. “That to me was a turning point in history, certainly in Western Australia but in many other parts of the world as well,” he says. “To see a 60,000-year-old relic demolished was a wake-up call to everybody that this has to be an issue that is taken seriously from here onwards. “So ESG went from being something you could report on and tick off, to becoming something that is absolutely essential.” Despite the relatively recent focus on ESG from mining companies, Newman believes there is a wealth
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of knowledgeable people already working in the industry with ideas on how to achieve sustainable goals. “So many of the younger engineers have been ready and waiting for this opportunity, so when they get asked how they are going to achieve these goals they already have the plans ready and are able to show that it will actually be cost effective,” he says. Newman believes that while there is great potential in hydrogen fuel cell technology, it will not be costeffective and the industry will be better off focussing on the benefits of battery technology. “All of the land transport is going to be battery-electric, so every train, truck and piece of mining equipment will be able to switch to batteryelectric or running directly off the main power supply,” he says. “Batteries are getting lighter and they now have a more extensive range. The battery chemistries are constantly being upgraded which is giving them more power.
