Canberra: Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Friday convened a roundtable of experts to chart a course toward the country becoming a renewable superpower.
Chalmers hosted discussions with leading clean energy experts and investors including banks and global asset managers on Australia’s transformation to clean energy, reports Xinhua news agency.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Chalmers said Australia must embrace its big opportunities in the sector over the next “defining decade”.
“Australia has a huge opportunity to be a renewable energy superpower but to grab this opportunity, we must align efforts across the economy,” he said in a media release on Friday.
“Today’s Investor Roundtable focused on investment opportunities for Australia in the net zero transformation, action needed to support the growth of sustainable finance in Australia and opportunities to unlock savings for consumers through better financing energy performance upgrades.”
His comments echoed those of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who in mid-2022 declared that Australia has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become a renewable energy superpower.
Australia ranks high globally for deposits of minerals that are essential for the transition to clean energy.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) estimates that demand for some metals will increase up to 500 percent by 2050 as more wind turbines, large-scale battery storage and electric vehicles are built.
Friday’s meeting coincided with Rod Sims, former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), arguing that green energy is a bigger opportunity for Australia than the resources boom of the past years.
“Australia has the world’s best combinations of wind and solar energy resources, and it has enormous sources of biomass for a zero emissions chemical industry,” he wrote in a piece for the Guardian Australia.
“The world is moving to a zero emissions economy — albeit at an uncertain speed — and we can have the lowest-cost zero emissions electricity available for large-scale economic development in the world.”
