Australia’s energy future more costly

Reducing carbon greenhouse gas emissions now will be cheaper for Australia than cleaning up the environmental damage that results from doing nothing, according to a new report.

The report, entitled The Heat is On: The Future of Energy in Australia is the final report of the Energy Futures Forum (EFF), a two-year long research project into the future of energy in Australia.

According to the report, the Australian and global economies need not falter while the world works to slash greenhouse gases, but admits that economic growth will be slower under carbon restrictions.
For consumers, retail electricity prices will increase between 7 and 20 per cent by 2050 due to carbon offset costs, but those increases will be below the change in real income per capita in Australia, which is expected to rise by over 100 per cent in the same period.

While electricity for households will likely remain affordable, energy-intensive industries like steel and aluminium production could suffer. According to Wright, “There’s no doubt about it: if we want to make some serious cuts in greenhouse gas emissions there is going to be some pain to some parts of industry. The question is how do we minimise that pain?”

Cosmos Magazine