Australian companies must accelerate their decarbonisation pace tenfold to meet emission reduction targets, according to Gareth O’Reilly, Pacific zone president of Schneider Electric.
Addressing Schneider Electric’s annual Innovation Summit in Sydney last week, O’Reilly said there needs to be a fundamental rethink of industrial processes, construction, energy efficiency, and energy generation to achieve Australia’s net zero goals.
He urged industry leaders to fast-track decarbonisation plans by adopting green electricity and using energy more efficiently.
“Introducing digital technology and replacing fossil fuels with electricity is key to achieving the energy transition,” O’Reilly said.
“The climate challenge is really an energy challenge, 80 per cent of global carbon emissions come from the production and consumption of energy.”
“The debate over decarbonisation has shifted fundamentally in Australia over the past year. It’s no longer about if we reduce emissions, but how to achieve net zero and how quickly.
“We are seeing some good progress. But we need to accelerate by almost 10 times what we've done in the last three to achieve the targets the federal government has announced.”
O’Reilly said a 1.5-degree global pathway requires net zero carbon by 2050, and that means halving emissions by the end of this decade.
“The first step must be reforming and reframing how we use electricity and how we create it. Renewables should replace fossil fuels as, aside from the emissions, creating electricity from thermal generation loses two thirds of the primary energy produced,” he said.
“Australia’s relatively poor performance in cutting emissions to date means there are significant opportunities for action now.
“Australian housing is the least efficient in the world of OECD countries and Australian industry, in terms of dollar of output per energy input, ranks among the lowest.
“By doing some simple things better around energy efficiency and the built environment we can reduce energy demand, by reducing usage, by 30 to 40 per cent.”
Although attention is focused on replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sources, O’Reilly said it is only half the solution.
“The other half comes from tackling the demand side, electrifying processes such as transport and heating, and also by reducing energy consumption – using digital technology to eliminate the vast amount of energy waste that exists today,” he said.
“Digital means efficiency. It allows us to make energy more visible, to understand and automate processes that deliver smarter, optimised consumption. And electric can make energy green, it is the most efficient energy and it's the best vector for decarbonisation.
“Combining digitisation with electrification creates what we call Electricity 4.0, a new era of smart, green electric energy.”