What are our options to reduce emissions

Diesel-powered vehicles have lower carbon emissions

Cars that run on hydrogen and emit only water from their exhausts and electric vehicles recharged using renewable electricity. These future options are real, and can help ensure a low-carbon future.

Twenty per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the use of liquid fuels including petrol, diesel and jet fuel. The government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources by 60 per cent in 2050 compared with levels in 2000. Trying to reach this target will be a huge challenge for Australia, affecting everyone who drives or uses transport.

Reducing reliance on fossil fuels (including oil) means all fuel users must cut usage of conventional petroleum products over the next 40 years and gradually replace them with low-carbon, sustainable forms of energy.

Even in 2050, oil refineries are still likely to provide substantial volumes of conventional liquid fuels. But alternative, lower carbon energy sources will help meet the growing demand for fuel across the Australian economy and reduce fuel imports.

We are already seeing the start of this shift with mass-produced petrol-electric hybrid cars, which will lead the way to vehicles that rely partially or completely on renewable, mains-based electricity. Alternative liquid fuels with a smaller carbon footprint will also play a role, and will include biofuels from sustainable feedstocks, synthetic petrol and diesel and hydrogen. Natural gas and LPG are already used as transport fuels.

These technologies will be made more economic by higher oil prices as conventional crude oil sources fall short of demand. Already, billions of dollars are being invested by vehicle manufacturers globally to avoid being left behind in the race for new technologies. Billions more are being invested by energy companies in ways to make new forms of liquid fuels and construct plants to produce them.

Let’s take a closer look at what will drive the changes required to make deep cuts in emissions:

Higher oil prices
It’s not what people want to hear, but it’s a basic law of oil supply and demand. The days of cheap oil are over and one of the major drivers for reducing fuel consumption and thus emissions is higher prices. Carbon costs on fuel will add to the emission reduction incentives already created by high oil prices. However, more efficient vehicles will cut the impact on household budgets.

Better designed cities and transport systems
Australian federal, state and local governments can help reduce fuel demand by designing cities better to reduce the need to travel, improving public transport, providing financial incentives to use roads more efficiently and improving freight infrastructure.

If carbon costs are imposed, lower carbon transport alternatives need to be available so people can change their behaviour.

New vehicle and fuel technologies
Technology advances offer the greatest potential for reducing emissions over the next 40 years. The Talkingpoint in this issue of The Star explains that vehicles with internal combustion engines fuelled with petrol and diesel are becoming much more fuel efficient, and they’ll continue to become more economical. But vehicles will shift gradually to using less petroleum products and more electricity from coal or gas-fired power stations with carbon capture and storage, or from renewable electricity sources such as wind or solar,

Petrol-electric and diesel-electric cars and commercial vehicles are already being produced. Over time, the internal combustion engines in hybrids will become smaller and their electric motors larger. “Plug-in” hybrids will recharge with mains electricity, and pure electric vehicles seem likely.

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