Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #zerocarbon2050
Most recents (3)
Australia's energy emission problem is more with transport and LNG processing than electricity. Electricity generation emissions are falling fast, as coal generation is displaced by renewables and energy efficiency measures. We see that in trends in fossil fuel consumption. 
But because we are not decarbonising transport, oil consumption is rising and that is exposing a huge risk beyond just the carbon risk. One reason is our domestic oil production is falling at more than 4% per year.
So we are increasingly reliant on net imports. And that impacts our current account amongst other things. Oil consumption costs around $270 million per day, and trend has us headed towards $500 million per day (~$150 billion per year) by 2050. That will all be imported.
One of the problems with the decarbonisation challenge is the incomprehensibility of energy units. One of those units is "million tonnes oil equivalent" or MTOE. Currently Australians consume around 133 MTOE in fossil fuels each year (we produce a lot more for export).
While it's easy to say our #zerocarbon2050 challenge is to reduce consumption by 133 MTOE over 30 years, I doubt anyone has any idea what that means in terms of individual action. To do so we need a different set of units.
One way is to convert MTOE to LOE - litres of Oil equivalent - on a per capita basis. Currently, the Australian economy runs at around 6000 LOE's per person, which amounts about to 120 (50 l) tanks of petrol - or one tank of petrol of every 3 days for each person.
"from little things big things grow"
Here's a question for @simonahac and others, with a new take on realising ambition.
How much do we each have to contribute in the here and now to meeting our #zerocarbon2050 ambition of zero fossil emissions?
Here's a question for @simonahac and others, with a new take on realising ambition.
How much do we each have to contribute in the here and now to meeting our #zerocarbon2050 ambition of zero fossil emissions?
With current global fossil fuel use at about 1700 Litres of oil equivalent for each and every person this year, the challenge is to each reduce our consumption by about 60 LOE, year on year for 30 years.
So our challenge for 2020 is a reduction of about one tank of petrol. Of course, on a per family basis it goes up depending on the size fo your family, and if you happen to be Australian you can double that (or more) because of (y)our much higher than average fossil fuel use.
